Katrina Coverage

From the WSJ (excerpt):
Hundreds of thousands of businesses and individuals displaced by Hurricane Katrina face possible financial disaster as money to pay workers dries up, banks get tougher on borrowers who were allowed to skip payments immediately after the storm and bureaucratic snafus slow the flow of cash and loans to victims.
The rising financial peril represents a second crisis for those forced to abandon their homes and businesses when Katrina barreled into Louisiana and Mississippi in late August. While cleanup and repair efforts are accelerating in devastated areas, prompting officials in New Orleans and elsewhere to urge some evacuees to return home, the financial hardships caused by the storm are expected to get much worse... Some borrowers also are being told they have only a few weeks to catch up on mortgage payments that lenders let lapse in the immediate aftermath of Katrina...
In many cases, employers say they have no alternative to ending the generosity that they extended to workers right after Katrina. In New Orleans, the tax base has been decimated, and Mayor Ray Nagin has announced plans to lay off about 3,000 workers, or half the municipal work force. Orleans Parish School District employees, including more than 3,700 teachers, were put on unpaid leave the day the storm struck. Employees will have health benefits until the end of October but no other benefits or reimbursement for sick leave, vacation or retirement...