CALAIS – The crown jewel of jazz and the ambassador of New Orleans made the house rock with her clarinet playing Thursday night, but she also touched listeners’ hearts after the concert with her insights into how Hurricane Katrina devastated her city.

More than 500 people showed up at the city park Thursday night to listen to New Orleans’ own Doreen Ketchens.

And even though a deluge interrupted the night, hundreds stood in the downpour to listen to her soulful rendition of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and her energetic “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

But it was after the concert that Ketchens really hit the high notes when she talked about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. She and her husband, Lawrence, saw the effects of Katrina up close.

The costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in history, the storm formed on Aug. 23, 2005, and dissipated eight days later, but not before it killed and maimed thousands.

It hit the north-central Gulf Coast with a vengeance. More than 1,500 died. The cost, which already is in the billions, is still being tallied.

Although the Ketchenses lived outside of New Orleans, their house flooded. “We got 3 feet of water,” she said. Although the second floor was spared, the rest is a mess, and they are still trying to repair it.

“The plumbing, the water was so toxic you could squeeze our pipes with your hands and break them. There’s a lot of mold. There’s a lot of fleas,” she said.

There still is no electricity.

Although houses can be fixed, the toughest part for the Ketchenses was the loss of family and friends. She said her husband’s cousin, who was in a nursing home, died. “They evacuated and left him and a few other people behind,” she said.

The couple also thought they had lost an aunt who had refused to leave without her dog. She was 94 years old.

“The rescuers came to get her and she was ready to go. She has this little dog and she said ‘OK’ and she came out with her dog. The rescuers said, ‘Ma’am, we can’t take the dog.’ She said, ‘Well I’m not leaving,'” Ketchens related.

They handed her some provisions and left. Three days later they returned, but the elderly aunt again refused to leave without her dog. “They took her dog with her [that time],” Ketchens said with a chuckle.

Without telephones, the couple feared that their aunt had died. They added her name to the growing missing person’s list. “We were so worried … but she was fine; spunky, you know,” she said. “That was like this light and that made us feel really good.”

The couple also lost musician friends, some to the storm, others afterward. “There’s a lot of stress now. A lot of people are going through heart problems and high blood pressure,” she said.

Even though it has been a year, natives are still feeling the effects. “Katrina is still waving her hand because we’re all affected by it,” Ketchens said.

Although out of the main news, New Orleans is still broken. “We’re still suffering. Don’t let them fool you,” she said. “Everything that is tourist-based is up and running. But if you go a little bit out of the tourist section, it almost makes you cry.”

She said federal and state help was slow, and it costs more to live. “We are paying triple for electricity, more for bread, meat and milk,” she said. “There are a lot of people that are displaced. You can’t come down and start trying to board your house if you’re paying $3 a gallon for gas. A lot of these neighborhoods were abandoned,” she said.

Even though they’re not living in their houses, a lot of people still have to pay the mortgage. “Or having the threat of them being taken away. There are people who want to be in New Orleans, but all they have left is a slab or a pillar,” she said.

Emotions are racing, people are worried. “If they’re not worried, they’re angry,” she said. “There’s a lot of emotional things going on.”

People can still help. “I would suggest that if you wanted to send help, really do some research. If you could find a family, give your money directly to them,” she said. “We’re still suffering down there.”

The Ketchenses found one avenue of escape after the hurricane through their music.

“We’ve been fortunate to get some State Department tours so we’ve been places we’ve never been before,” she said. They’ve toured South Africa, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Dominican Republic.

“That’s been great for us because it’s given us a chance to get away,” she said.

But even though she’s not playing on the streets of New Orleans right now, the jewel of jazz promises that New Orleans will come back and be bigger and better.