Little early but an awful lot of reports are indicating Katrina damage far below the wild estimates thrown out by our disaster experts. Deaths in New Orleans will be nowhere near the 10,000 speculated; less than 5,000, and perhaps as low as a few hundred. The property damage, when you consider the entire Katrina swath, is also a lot lower than initial speculation, perhaps as low as $60bil. Grain traffic on the Mississippi is flowing at 100%, oil is flowing at 70%, but the refineries are still not up to max.

AIR Worldwide Corp., a risk-modeling firm based in Boston, has estimated insured losses in a range of $17 billion to $25 billion. Another risk-modeling firm, Eqecat Inc., which is based in Oakland, Calif., has projections of $14 billion to $22 billion.

Now that heads are beginning to clear we will find a lot of opposition to rebuilding New Orleans on tax dollars. It is a disaster forever; sinking by the year it will never be a match for either the Mississippi or the occasional category four. Building other places will give the environwhacks plenty to sue about. And a pal of mine who is a toxin researcher for an oil firm says that because it is nearly impossible to dry out soil in super humid Louisiana, it may be a six months before it is safe to live there. E-coli is like those atomic things with half lives ranging from two days to six months. You can bet the hate America enviros will find the brand new six year variety so they can sue. Suprisingly, toxins have have lives of a few minutes to a couple of days. Lead is a bitch because it can last nearly forever, so look for Greenies to find lead everywhere.