Brad Pitt aims to keep focus on Katrina recovery

REUTERS. AUG 21, 2007. By Russell McCulley

Calling Hurricane Katrina a "man-made disaster," actor Brad Pitt said on Tuesday he remains committed to helping the city recover from the storm.

Nearly two years after the August 29, 2005 hurricane, the "Ocean's Thirteen" star said he was at times dismayed by the pace of recovery in New Orleans, where he and partner Angelina Jolie own an elegant townhouse in the historic French Quarter.

Pitt was in the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood to tour an ecologically sustainable single-family home being built by Global Green USA, an environmental group he backs.

The actor praised the house in the Holy Cross area of the ward as a "small victory" for efforts to rebuild the city, but said, "it's hard to find an overall victory when you see how slowly everything is still moving. And Katrina was a man-made disaster. This house is a man-made solution."

Pitt said the city's flood-protection defenses must be restored before displaced residents feel confident enough to rebuild.

"We've got to push to get these levees taken care of in the correct fashion," he told reporters at a news conference in the hurricane-ravaged working class neighborhood.

The house that Pitt toured, loosely modeled on the distinctive New Orleans "shotgun" style of long, narrow homes, will generate almost all its electricity from 28 roof-mounted solar panels, said Global Green USA president Matt Petersen.

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