Over spring break -- seven months after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast -- about 400 college students from around the country flooded some of the most devastated areas of New Orleans, providing food and water, gutting and repairing houses, giving legal counsel, and removing toxins from the ground.

Even as Penn State's spring break was ending, Common Ground Collective -- a controversial organization focused on helping residents of the city's Ninth Ward -- expected 1,500 new volunteers from various colleges and universities across the country.

After seven months, New Orleans is still covered in debris. While progress has been made in draining the toxic floodwaters and building temporary levees, the area remains far from as it was.

After working in New Orleans for Common Ground, many of the volunteers said they were surprised by the magnitude of the devastation that remained and the uncertainty of New Orleans' future.