Mayor tells New Orleans get off rears and rebuild

NEW ORLEANS, June 2 (Reuters) New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told citizens of ''The Big Easy'' city to stand up and take destiny in their own hands as hurricane season opened and he started his second term in office.

Nagin began the day in the high spirits typical of the jazz city, sweeping through the historic narrow streets of the French Quarter in a white horse-drawn carriage surrounded by brass bands and costumed Mardi Gras dancers on his way to be inaugurated for a second term yesterday.

The timing of the swearing-in was symbolic for many -- June 1 is the beginning of the hurricane season. One forecaster said New Orleans, still full of wastelands of houses twisted and destroyed by Hurricane Katrina last year, is the most likely major U.S. city to suffer a direct hit by a storm.

But in his inaugural speech, Nagin cast the battle for the city's future as a challenge for individuals rather than a question of government support or a waiting game with nature and exhorted the city of 'survivors' to rebuild.

''This is The Big Easy, and sometimes we lay back a little too much,'' he said.

''Get off your duffs,'' he said to shocked but welcoming laughter from a crowd that frequently broke into applause.

''Control your own destiny ... We can do this,'' he added as members of the audience shouted back, ''Yes!'' He urged the press to find the good things after Katrina.

Nagin also listed a litany of complaints, from damaged schools and lack of housing to a post-storm increase in crime, but he challenged residents to do for themselves rather than rely on federal, state or city leaders.

HURRICANE SEASON STARTS Tens of thousands of people who were New Orleans residents before Katrina have not yet returned, and some of those left in the city voiced a mix of hope and fear about what loomed ahead in coming months.

''God is not going to be mean enough to give us another one,'' said fortuneteller Bruce Wilson, 58, sitting in a white straw hat outside St. Louis Cathedral before the early morning parade.

Inside the cathedral, religious leaders asked for divine support for Nagin's second term and called the disasters behind and possibly ahead a test of leadership and faith.

''We are a great city and a great people,'' boomed Rev.

Michael Jacques. ''We are not God's forgotten people.'' Repairs have made the levees which broke and flooded the city nine months ago as good or better than before Katrina hit, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.

The Corps built the defenses and was heavily criticized after the storm, which killed more that 1,500 in Louisiana, but city leaders have been more complimentary of late of the engineers' dash to complete repairs.

''This will probably be the safest place on the Gulf Coast at the end of the day,'' Nagin said.

Antique salesman John Hmurcik, 55, said he was not so confident about repairs. ''It all boils down to the levees,'' he said. ''We're all kind of tense, of course.'' But he said the parade showed the Mississippi River city's nature. ''It is not unusual for New Orleans to celebrate, even in hard times,'' he said.

Although jobs appear plentiful in some sectors, the massive destruction of housing limits who can return. Many are still repairing houses.

One is Chef Nathedra White, 35, who lives in a trailer while rebuilding. She might not come back to her native New Orleans if it takes another direct hit. ''I don't know if I'm going to stay here or leave forever,'' she said.

Reuters PDS VP0610