Before the cleanup team arrived wit...

Before the cleanup team arrived with their face masks and rubber glove their crowbars and trash bins, Bradley and Connie Tompkins took a final walk between the walls of the remains of their apartment near Lake Pontchartrain.

The multitude unleashed from the nearby canal onward Aug. 30 by the failings of man and the force of nature, had been ferocious. It had roared by the and of this city neighborhood and attacked everything in its path. It had ransacked their first-floor apartment -- knocking down furniture, tossing works and knickknacks, and pulling lay open drawers and scattering the eases

The water had not cared that the Tompkinses were newlyweds, a Media, Pa., lad and a Metairie, La., girl building a modern life together. The water not at all gave a thought to the fact that these were beneficial people who had worked hard for what they had, that an insurance misunderstanding would mean they would not receive compensation for