"We are the forgotten parish. Nobody came to rescue us. They don't give a damn about the parish!" Regina Ellenfield fumed, giving voice to the frustration and anger running rampant in St. Bernard Parish, a county just east of New Orleans.

Completely covered by oil-polluted floodwaters, the parish - home to some 64,000 people - was among the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, but its residents have yet to learn when they can return home.

"We are angry. We want to know when we can go back," Ellenfield said.

On Monday, thousands of people descended on the Louisiana state capitol building in Baton Rouge for a "townhall meeting," seeking answers and aid to ease their staggering losses.

"I came to see what they're gonna tell everybody. I want to know when they'll let people back," said Glenn Ellis, 45, a fireman whose house is still seven or eight meters (23 to 26 feet) underwater.

St. Bernard Parish president Henry "Junior" Rodriguez tried to calm the crowds.

"There is no one that could have been prepared for this. Even the state government, the federal government did not anticipate this worst-case scenario," he said.

After levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain gave way, the parish suffered a second blow when a storage tank at a Murphy Oil Co. refinery near the town of Meraux burst, spilling 320 tonnes of crude into the stagnant floodwaters.

"It's a serious situation. I cannot tell when you will be able to be back to your house. There are safety issues," Rodriguez said. The heavily contaminated, polluted floodwaters are toxic, and the air is polluted with benzene fumes.

"Before we evacuated, I told my wife, 'Look at everything, because all you might come back to will be just memories,'" an emotional Rodriguez said, vowing nonetheless: "We will rebuild St. Bernard Parish."

Sadness was palpable at the meeting. Expressions of despair, anger and resignation flickered across people's faces.

"You are not prepared for what you are going to see because of the massive devastation and the chaos, and you are not prepared for the grief of those who might have lost everything," said Sheriff Jack Stephens.

But in remarks that drew applause from the crowd, he noted that, during the evacuation effort, "there were no shots fired, no civil disobedience. The citizens of this parish are heroic."

Stephens added that despite all of the chaos, order still reigned. "We have on site a US navy amphibious ship, some 500 National Guards from Colorado, 1,200 marines and some tactical units of police departments from all over the country. They are conducting routine patrols. The parish is secure," he declared.

Moved to tears, Councilman Joey Di Fatta noted that the oil slick coating the floodwaters posed the greatest threat to the parish.

"It's mass devastation," he said. "As the water recedes, the oil will stay on your walls.

"I have about two feet (60 centimeters) of oil residue on my house," Di Fatta said.

Overall, the meeting did little to calm the storm brewing among residents.

"I did not learn one damn thing," fumed Sheryl Lovell, a resident of Meraux who is temporarily renting an apartment in Baton Rouge.

"We almost don't have any money left. My house is totally underwater. I am very angry. I wasted time and gas to come here for nothing.

"When will we be able to go home? Can we rebuild? FEMA is doing nothing for us. Where are all those billions of dollars of donations?" she demanded, her face turning purple with anger.

Echoing those cries were many residents in Mississippi, where Hurricane Katrina devoured entire cities when it hammered the US Gulf Coast two weeks ago.

John Walker, a dock worker in Gulfport, Mississippi, a major industrial port that has been closed for weeks, lamented the lack of aid for his community, saying that, while radio reports herald federal funds for evacuees in Texas, people in Mississippi are still waiting for help.

Walker's house was flooded but not completely destroyed. Unfortunately, like many residents in the region, he has no flood insurance, so the damage will likely not be covered.

"I feel that in New Orleans, they got much more attention than here. People here are not given the attention they need," complained Helen Simmons, a businesswoman in D'Iberville, several kilometers (miles) from the Mississippi coast.

"We have a lot of homeless people here. Some live in their garden shacks. They don't have a car to go to a shelter," she said, adding that residents were still waiting for teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to visit.

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