Thousands of the families whose lives and life stories were siezed and shaken violently by Hurricane Katrina are still waiting to go back home. House rebuilding hasn’t proceeded as quickly as it should have. A new grassroots group called Katrina Corps aims to do something to change that by sending 25,000 college-aged people to New Orleans during spring ‘07, to gut 5,000 of the 10,000 houses that are wait-listed for it.

The project is in start-up mode now; their place-holder web page, with a prospectus and an email address to write to for more information, is here.

Right now, the project can benefit from emailing, blogging, and general spreading the word: ultimately the organizers look forward to the challenge, and the pleasure, of “recruiting people open to both an adventure and a down-and-dirty task.”