Ellenor Simmons, who helps oversee long-term recovery projects for the United Way of the Greater New Orleans Area, said the faith community was “remarkable”.
“Absolutely remarkable in every way they could be," she added.
Despite the praises, there is still much hurricane recovery work that needs to be done and still people in the region living in temporary housing.
And while there is still a sense of remarkable rebuilding overall, life is not what it was.
"There is a 'new normal,'" Simmons told CWS.
"Five years later, long-term recovery groups continue to assist people with unmet needs," added Simmons' United Way colleague, Benita Corley.
Still, many in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast have expressed gratitude for the combined efforts of local, regional and national organisations.
"If it was not for the collaboration of those local, regional and national long-term recovery organisations, many individuals would not be living in safe, sanitary and secure housing,” Corley noted.
On Sunday – five years after Katrina hit New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward to Biloxi, Mississipi – a number of special ceremonies were planned in honor of the dead and to focus on rebuilding and moving on. In New Orleans, the bells will toll at St. Louis Cathedral. Meanwhile, in the Lower 9th Ward, a "healing ceremony" and march were planned.
More than 1,800 people along the Gulf coast died in the 2005 storm, mostly in Louisiana. And more than 80 per cent of hard-hit New Orleans was flooded.
According to a poll released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, 7 in 10 Americans, or 69 per cent, think progress has been made in rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf.
Among people in the South - which includes Gulf Coast states - 75 per cent say progress has been made.
The poll also found that 57 per cent say the country has not improved its disaster preparations. Just 38 per cent said the country is more ready than it was.
Church World Service contributed to this article.
