September 11 update:

First, answering many questions from the past week. I went to check out my parents' house with my Dad, and I hate to use the term in a situation like this, but they got lucky. There are (were) approximately thirty trees, mostly yellow pine, on their lot. Many of them were snapped or uprooted during the storm. They fell in the front, back, and on both sides, but not a single one penetrated the house.

In their neighborhood, however, the ratio of houses with at least one tree on/through the roof to unscathed houses is at least 3:1. It will take some time to clear all that lumber.

Cleco and Entergy are doing a fantastic job of restoring power, even faster than I expected. In Slidell they appeared to work in waves. The first wave of workers cleared the streets, then came back to tackle the rights-of-way. Those with underground feeds to the house are already coming back on line, while the overhead feeds are taking longer to reconnect. Overall, half the homes and businesses on the Northshore have power.



You can see the progress for Cleco here
http://www.cleco.com/site.php?pageID=284
and for Entergy click here
http://www.entergy.com/corp/default3.asp

St Tammany parish (north of Lake Ponchartrain) is coming back steadily in other ways. Cell phone service is returning, and the school system announced an October 5th projected restart date. Two Catholic schools, Pope John Paul II and St Margaret Mary will reopen September 19. Some parts of the parish are still under orders to boil water before drinking until it can be assured to be safe, however. http://www.wwltv.com/local/northshore/stories/WWL091005sttam.4567489f.html
South of the lake progress is slower. Jefferson Parish announced the same October 5 school reopening date for some schools, and the parish government is asking all business owners to return this Monday.

Louis Armstrong International Airport (New Orleans) will reopen for scheduled passenger air service Tuesday, September 13. The airport has been open for military and commercial relief flights over the past weeks.

Real estate in Baton Rouge has suddenly become a hot commodity. Many businesses have relocated from the N.O. metro area and are setting up expanded satellite offices or are moving operations here permanently.

Also, traffic has become a nightmare here. What took twenty minutes before now is a trip of over an hour. I kid you not.

An interesting interactive map from Google- you can see water levels, both high water marks and current levels. http://mapper.cctechnol.com/floodmap.php

Another side effect of Katrina was the cancellation of the LSU Tigers' home opener last week and the relocation of the game against Arizona State last night to Tempe, Arizona. The Tigers pulled it out 35-31 in an ugly win.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/091105/lsu_lsu001.shtml

Amidst all the progress, however, many wonder to what extent the New Orleans area will recover. Will the tourism industry return? Businesses?

Life has changed in south Louisiana, that much is obvious. Everyday it seems there is another consequence of that change that I previously had not thought of.

Feel free to post comments and questions, my friends. I can't do it all, you know.
More to come later. I hear the hum of the chainsaw calling my name.