COMING BACK TO LIFE
For many people directly in Katrina's path, there was no avoiding trauma. But the U.S. economy is tremendously resilient. Here, a look at how the region is climbing back from a horrific storm.
By TELIS DEMOS

(FORTUNE Magazine) –

THE FOOD CHAIN

Fisheries were hardest hit--shrimp and oyster stocks will need at least a year to recover. Katrina also tore through fields and disrupted transportation, but not enough to affect the prospect of big harvests across the Midwest.

COULDN'T ENTER THE PORT

Bananas

Dole and Chiquita had to reroute thousands of inbound tons to ports in Texas and South Carolina.

Coffee

New Orleans is the top U.S. import and roasting center. Fortunately the storehouses survived intact.

COULDN'T LEAVE THE PORT

Corn and soybeans

The Port of South Louisiana handles two-thirds of U.S. grain exports.

Fertilizer and timber

U.S. customers will end up paying more for Alabama and Mississippi goods.

CROPS/FISHING DESTROYED

Meat

In Mississippi, 2,300 chicken houses were damaged or destroyed. Louisiana is missing 10,000 cattle.

Cotton

250,000 bales were soaked, but bumper crops nationally might ease the pain.

Sugar

Two refineries got knocked out, but the USDA upped quotas so farmers will produce more.

Shrimp and Oysters

The hurricane struck the heart of the fisheries. Estimated losses: $539 million in shrimp, $296 million in oysters.

GALVESTON

FEMA considered it for hotel ships to house evacuees, but the idea was dropped. The port is looking into buying new freezers to handle fruit shipments.

HOUSTON

As the biggest port in the region, it can handle New Orleans' steel and machinery shipments and anything else that the rest of the Gulf Coast can't pick up.

BATON ROUGE

This undamaged port is hosting military hospitals and relief shipments but is too small to help with much else.

INSURANCE

Catastrophe risk models suggest that private insurance claims for Katrina's Gulf Coast damage will total between $20 and $25 billion. That's mostly based on wind damage--flood damage could add another $25 billion. Mississippi's attorney general says he wants insurers to pick up the bills for flood; insurers say that's what federal flood insurance is for. "We've never accepted a dime in premiums, and we're never going to pay," says Bob Hartwick of the Insurance Information Institute.

THE PIPELINES

Power outages reduced pipelines to three-quarters capacity. East Coast lines were quickly restored, but the Capline (owned by Shell) was also choked by port blockages on the Mississippi, prompting Washington to ship oil from the strategic reserve to Midwestern refineries.

GULFPORT

Very little traffic thus far, which hits refrigerated fruit imports hard: Dole and Chiquita can't use their terminals here. The floating casinos ($1.4 billion annual revenue) were destroyed.

PORT OF NEW ORLEANS

A broken lock and two wrecked bridges pose big problems. But the port has already received steel and coffee imports. Senator Max Baucus visited and pledged $1.7 billion for repairs.

PORT OF FOURCHON

Home to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which receives nearly 18% of domestic oil production. Now operating at 80% of normal, Fourchon is still hampered by uncleared debris.

THE DISPOSSESSED

At one point, the Red Cross was housing more than 200,000 evacuees. So far only 10,000 have left Red Cross care. Of those who remain, two-thirds are in hotel rooms. The rest are still in shelters (see chart at right). FEMA leased cruise ships to serve as temporary housing, but the evacuees rejected them. The new plan is to use prefab and mobile homes, though that could create refugee "ghettos." The rest of the estimated half-million displaced Gulf Coast residents are invigorating sagging rental markets. No one's sure how the 250,000 jobs lost in the storm will be replaced. So far, 68,000 people have filed for unemployment.

Evacuees in Red Cross Shelters

Texas At Peak: 60,628 Sept 14: 20, 817

Louisiana At Peak: 56, 835 Sept 14: 29, 136

Mississippi At Peak: 54, 410 Sept 14: 4, 406

Georgia At Peak: 8, 381 Sept 14: 1, 131

Florida At Peak: 5, 969 Sept 14: 298

PORTS

By tons of cargo, the ports Katrina hit are among the biggest in the U.S. But the Gulf region is highly competitive, and other ports readily accomodated the displaced shipments. Big ships from Europe and Asia, which normally make stops all along the Gulf, are skipping New Orleans and heading straight to Texas. If New Orleans can't get reestablished soon, says Jim Edmonds, chairman of the Port of Houston Authority, "certain cargo industries will come to Houston, like coffee and steel."

OIL AND GAS

The Gulf of Mexico produces 30% of domestic crude oil, and its ports handle 60% of the nation's oil imports. (It produces 20% of domestic natural gas.) Thirteen refineries were initially closed, but eight have reopened and are back to normal. Nearly two-thirds of the Gulf's rigs and platforms were abandoned, shutting off 95% of the region's oil flow, and nine oil spills from broken pipelines and storage tanks were reported. But only four rigs were destroyed, and flows are already back to roughly 60% of normal.