The storm sent Mark's business, the Radiator Shop of New Orleans, an automotive services company that has been in his family for three generations, into a death spiral, dropping its annual revenues from $550,000 pre-Katrina to about $125,000 last year.
Each week in the beginning, Mark commuted 430 miles to New Orleans to work on the business and tackle insurance claims. At the shop, he found computers and his massive wood desk piled in a jumble, soaked and moldy. All the equipment was a loss, and, he says, he and his employees "had to shovel our way in." The cleanup took two months.
Mark says he is willing to keep commuting, but business has been so bad that he's had to lay off all but two employees. He estimates that only 18% of his customers have returned. If he leaves the Radiator Shop behind, he'd like to get something out of his 23-year investment. But it's not clear how valuable the shop is.
 Mark and his employees had to shovel their way into his shop.
The business: What now?
| Darryl and Jennifer Hazelwood are giving their home another chance. (more) Why progress on rebuilding is so slow and how businesses and former residents are coping. (more) Photojournalist Stanley Greene has been documenting the aftermath of Katrina since the day it struck. (more)  |
