New Orleans Levees Hold! But What's Next For Returning Residents?

With Gustav delivering at best a glancing blow to New Orleans, residents in the thousands were immediately ready to come back home.  Minor flooding and a well executed evacuation plan by the state government mean that residents of New Orleans should be able to come back into the city in a matter of days, not weeks according to New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin.

Thousands will be without power for quite some time, but the city itself should be habitable after a sweep by government officials, police and a final check on the condition of levees by the Army Corps of Engineers.  Nagin called Gustav the "...maybe the mother-in-law or the ugly sister of all storms".

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Gustav wasn't as bad as they feared. Oil workers should quickly find their ways back to starting production again in the Gulf Coast after all the refineries were shut down in preparation for the hurricane.  With prices of oil expected to continue to decrease over the next few days, the analysis of the economic impact from damages due to the storm will be relatively minor in scale.  The well preparedness of everyone from citizens to state and federal government

How different will living and working conditions be when the residents are welcomed back into the Big Easy? Only time will tell, but all estimations are that this time the city will bounce back quickly and the local economy should rebound in time.