Apparently Democrats favored "Whoa, dude, it sucks to be you" while Republicans favored the more impersonal "Really? Sorry to hear about that".

Apparently Democrats favored "Whoa, dude, it sucks to be you" while Republicans favored the more impersonal "Really? Sorry to hear about that".

God, Charlie, you're killing me!

On a serious note, there are still hundreds of thousands of displaced New Orleans residents in Texas and Oklahoma; I think the number is something like 200,000 in Houston alone. So the disruption is still huge.

How did you make out?

It's rather a misconception about "all the money" - virtually none of the, what $80 some odd billion? has actually arrived here. SBA won't approve any loans (I know people who've been trying to get their business reopened since January - SBA says they qualify for $350K, but the check's always in the mail.

Insurance companies other than State Farm are only paying a fraction unless you take them to court. Much of the $80B is payout for flood policies, but the Gov't takes credit for that since it's subsidized. Trouble is, not subsidized enough apparently since many, many claims still haven't been paid.

In the city there's a some of gutting of houses, but a lot is done by non-profits and volunteers - not much reconstruction. Most of the 150,000 flooded cars were still in the streets a month ago, along with a lot of boats. Stores and restuarants close very early, some places close mid-day because of utility interruptions. A lot of it falls under the rubric of economic justice since the poor can't get back here, never mind fight the system.

They talk about all the people who've returned to the city but I think many, maybe even most, are itinerant labor looking to cash in. You can still drive for miles and see nothing but rot, not even stray dogs.

I wouldn't think of it as a vaction place for quite some time yet.

It's pure racism - the face of the hurricane is poor, uneducated and black so the power structure couldn't care less about the place.

What I see is there's no "real" work in the city proper - some companies are not coming back, some who tried to come back are leaving again. Of 22,000 registered business in existence on August 28, 2005 there are now approximately 2000 open (according to the paper) and that includes Popeye's and Burger King.

There's little housing available, even where I live (the next suburb north which happens to be 24 miles away across the world's longest bridge) and the prices are really getting up there. When we moved here the majority of nicer, newer houses ( brick veneer, 1/4 acre, 3-4 bdrm, 2-3 baths) in the area were running around $150K (we paid a "record" price for our neighborhood of $169K) - two years ago you still could by brand-new small brick veneer ranches "out in the parish" for under $80K. Today all the prices you see are around $350K with dozens of houses within walking distance of my house going for $750K up to $1300K. Remember this is the poorest state in the union - we're talking serious pressure on the housing market. That means that it's nearly impossible for family people to move in here to support the companies that want to stay.

A lot of people who were driven out by the storm don't have any resources to rebuild; they lived in generational houses and didn't have mortgages and consequently many had no insurance. Given that, and the lost tax revenue, I see New Orleans repeating its original development starting in 1865. Over many years people and businesses will slowly drift back, reclaiming bits of ground at a time. Meanwhile trying to support police, fire and public utilities (the omnibus utility company has been bankrupt for 11 months and simply provides services no better than temporary connections).

At best it will be a "boutique" city consisting of the Quarter and Uptown (the original settled areas, before the levees), surrounded by rot with all the money moving to the suburbs. One more serious flooding incident and you can write the place off. And that's entirely possible - the Corps of Engineers won't have the original flood control re-established until Christmas, and probably later given that they're already 6 months behind their original schedule.