Here are the best answers to complete the passage:

11. **D. beautiful**
12. **C. attract**
13. **A. absorb**
14. **B. at**
15. **D. said**

So, the completed passage would read:

New Orleans is a city in the southern part of the US. It is (11) **beautiful** for its old-fashioned streets and buildings and jazz music. It used to (12) **attract** millions of tourists every year. But all of this has changed in August of 2005.

A nasty hurricane named Katrina hit the southern part of the US. New Orleans suffered the most damage (13) **absorb** the storm. New Orleans is a city but built (14) **at** sea level, so it has levees-walls built to keep sea from flowing into land. However, Katrina destroyed these levees and the city eventually is flooded.

More than 100 people were dead and the city was totally destroyed. Houses were gone, buildings were ruined, and cars were damaged. Experts (15) **said** that it will cost more than 26 billion dollars to rebuild the city.