NEW ORLEANS — If any people empathize with flood victims along the upper Mississippi, it's folks along the lower Mississippi. Nearly three years ago, Hurricane Katrina took its broadest swipe in the Big Easy, breaching vulnerable levees.

In August 2005, more than 1,500 people died in Louisiana, compared with death tolls in the single and double digits elsewhere along the Gulf Coast. Most died here from water.

People here who have watched on TV recent flooding in the Midwest have done so with familiar dread. They've experienced the fear and anxiety of submerged roofs and separated and missing relatives. You could say that folks in the Big Easy have been there, done that and even got a lousy FEMA T-shirt to show for it.

Yet even folks in the hardest-hit Lower 9th Ward show signs of recovery. The most promising ones are new construction, repopulated neighborhoods, gardens and children riding bicycles again. Such recovery hasn't come without some hard lessons.

Therefore, Midwestern flood victims should heed the following: Don't refuse help or expect the federal government to provide it in a hurry.

New Orleans is recovering mostly because nonprofits and volunteers are providing skilled and unskilled labor. Church groups still come here for mission work. College kids still spend their spring breaks cleaning up here. They have removed mold and debris from homes and trees and vehicles from streets so that phone and electrical lines could be restored.

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, more than 28,000 Midwesterners registered for FEMA assistance since heavy rains affected 14 main river systems that breached levees. There were about 40,000 evacuees from a five-state area along the swell. At least two dozen deaths were reported, along with nearly 150 people reported injured by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Despite stark differences in what happened here in 2005 and what's happening in the Midwest in 2008, people here do share a sense of what folks upstream in Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and elsewhere are experiencing. More advice: Refuse the FEMA trailer.

Katrina survivors got FEMA trailers late and with a known toxin, formaldehyde. FEMA kept from the public what it knew about the hidden carcinogen. Once exposed, FEMA downplayed the threat, claiming trailers were only a hazard if people were exposed for long periods.

When FEMA offered trailers to tornado victims in Greensburg, Kan., residents who could find shelter elsewhere did so. FEMA reports a similar response from Midwestern flood evacuees. Lesson learned?

After Katrina, federal and state officials in Louisiana urged that private homes be razed because they were permanently uninhabitable. Insurers reneged on policies, denied claims and forced traumatized, cash-strapped residents to litigate.

Returning New Orleans residents chose to raise their homes, not raze them. New properties, such as Habitat for Humanity's Musicians' Village, led the way with new homes built higher on concrete stilts. Existing homeowners took the cue in their rebuilds.

Another lesson: Hold your ground and protect your property rights.

Most folks in New Orleans can't talk about the Army Corps of Engineers without cursing.

Before Katrina, there were reports, some in the Louisiana press, that levees were vulnerable to future hurricanes. Katrina validated their suspicions, especially when warnings were unheeded. People here want accountability, not just blame.

Recently, they've announced an 8/9 Commission, so called for that infamous August day. This new commission is supposed to provide answers and accountability.

Midwestern flood victims also are starting to believe that Mother Nature had a partner in crime. Some have questioned whether overdeveloped riverfronts may have helped compromise levees and destroy homes and farmland.

The lesson: Investigate now, not later.

Louisiana government leaders recently celebrated an important find in Texas. Items intended for Katrina relief in Louisiana went there instead. So three years after Katrina, help is on the way.

The lesson for flooded Midwesterners: Help may not come overnight.

But it shouldn't take three years.

Rhonda Chriss Lokeman (RCLCreators@kc.rr.com) is a contributing editor to The Kansas City Star. To find out more about Rhonda Chriss Lokeman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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