BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Amid discussions about rebuilding and renewal after Katrina, the emotional impact of the destruction lingers. Over the past few weeks, we've seen hundreds of images of destroyed lives and property, including religious places and objects. Many of these items hold a deep, often sacred meaning for people of faith. Kim Lawton has more.

KIM LAWTON: In town after town across the Gulf Coast, stark reminders that even the sacred was not spared from Katrina's fury. Places of worship turned into rubble; consecrated ground broken; religious symbols battered; the holy desecrated.

The University of Virginia's director of Jewish studies, Vanessa Ochs, has written widely about the importance of religious objects.

Dr. VANESSA OCHS (Director of Jewish Studies, University of Virginia): Religious objects have great power. They can serve as spiritual agents that give us our sense of religious identity, that move us to act in holy and ethical ways, that tell us who we are as people of faith communities. When you see a sacred object that's been destroyed, it could potentially give you the experience of God's absence. It might lead you to think, where is God now?

LAWTON: But, says Ochs, finding a remnant -- a church sign; a Bible, soggy but still identifiable; or a statue intact except for a few missing fingers -- can actually strengthen faith.

Dr. OCHS: It's a poignant symbol that faith survives. It could give you the feeling that no, indeed, this is a sign that God is still present for you, that your faith is still present, that that has been rescued and that you will be sustained throughout this crisis.

LAWTON: When floodwaters were rising on the Biloxi waterfront, Christine Fox and her friend fled in terror to an upper floor. Then, she saw a Wise Man from a nativity scene floating in the debris.