CAMERON, Louisiana;  With hurricane season revving up over the Atlantic, residents along U.S. eastern and Gulf coasts are anxious about the possible damage powerful storms could bring.

But in Gulf Coast towns such as Cameron, Louisiana, people are still struggling to recover from hurricanes that left their mark nearly two years ago.

On September 24, 2005, a month after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Hurricane Rita hurled a 15-foot-(4.5-metre-)high storm tide and 110 mph (177 kph) winds at Cameron. No one died because most had fled, but houses, businesses and government offices washed away.

"It was real bad," Cameron Parish court clerk Carl Broussard said.

Most houses on this spit of land between marshes and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico are gone. Slabs, broken piers and empty driveways remain. Most who remain residents live in trailers.

After sunset, streets are mostly dark, Judge Ward Fontenot said. "A pall falls on this town at night because a lot of what you see is workers, who don't live here," he said.

The offshore oil and fishing industries have recovered and they sustain what is left of Cameron.

The town's bank and library operate in portable buildings. Children attend classes in nearby towns because Cameron's only school was destroyed. Both grocery stores are gone, but one is trying to reopen, Broussard said.

"It's taking time to rebuild," he said, noting Rita's victims were overshadowed by New Orleans' after Katrina hit.

Ronald George, an environmental company manager, said a lot of people are waiting for help. Government red tape and delayed payout from insurance companies have slowed reconstruction, he said.

A report released earlier this year by the Institute of Southern Studies said the Gulf region's recovery was stalled by a lack of housing, jobs and other basic needs.

Fontenot predicted the town would never be the same, even if it is rebuilt.

"They'll never come back like they were," he said. People are more mobile now, he said, they can work in Cameron and live on higher ground.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Cameron Parish's population, estimated at less than 8,000, was 22 percent smaller in 2006 than in 2000.

"This is our norm now," said Margaret Theriot, an assistant in the region's new emergency operations center.