Very slowly - most of the city doesn't have electricity, the FEMA-contracted debris removal people are revolting because they're not getting paid even though FEMA monitors signed their bills before they were submitted - finding a job paying minimum wage here (eg not wait staff plus tips jobs) is pretty rare but now Rally's is paying $10 per hour, Burger King $12 per hour plus $500 per month bonus for a year - there's nobody to work so businesses can't open and unless businesses open there's no revenue to hire so there's no work - only major corporations have the money to bring in workers and start up again - no Coke products, local bottler got squished - weird to see even the most commonplace products hard to find - everything operates limited hours; hard to buy stuff - still no mail to my house - with roads and bridges screwed up plus all the out-of-towners here to make a buck traffic is pretty unbelievable - Allstate refuses to settle or even send adjusters to any claims; complete stonewall - State Farm's been pretty good to most people - one guy said yesterday "Katrina got me wet, but State Farm fucked me" - there's a t-shirt in that one.Out here in the burbs all utilities but cable are back in business but other than that there's not much happening - no reconstruction going on - maybe people are waiting for insurance checks - except for the utilities being back and the stuff pushed to the sides of the roads it's not a whole lot different than it was on August 30 outside the city except that 1/2 of a critical bridge opened up yesterday and in the city the last of the water got pumped out on Wednesday.