The Road Home, the Louisiana grant program for homeowners who lost their houses to Hurricanes and Rita, is expected to cost far more than the $7.5 billion provided by the federal government, in part because many more families have applied than officials had anticipated.

The financial woes of the Road Home have set off a frenzy of finger-pointing between federal and state officials, who blame one another for the projected shortfall.

The new problem has reinforced the fears of many in that they are being abandoned by the federal government, even as it acknowledges that its levee system failed during Hurricane
''There's no way they can ever make everybody whole, but they need to fix the thing they broke,'' said Frank A. Silvestri, a lawyer and co-founder of the Citizens' Road Home Action Team, which has been critical of the program.