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September 18, 2005
Business Owners Start to Return to New Orleans
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
The official in charge of the federal recovery effort, Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, said today that business owners were being allowed to return to New Orleans under tight supervision to make assessments, but the timeline for repopulating the city with the general public was still under discussion.

A lack of potable water, standing contaminated water and weakened levees were still issues to be dealt with, Admiral Allen said. Infrastructure needs to be inspected as well, he said.

"Those plans need to be locked down," he said on "Fox News Sunday." He added that he would give the mayor, C. Ray Nagin, an "unvarnished" assessment in a meeting on Monday of what he thinks the best time would be for the general public to re-enter the city.

Business owners and some residents returned to parts of the storm-struck city and surrounding communities over the weekend in a staggered re-entry scheduled to move ZIP code by ZIP code, parish by parish.

Carol Winn Crawford, pastor of the 130-year-old Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church on St. Charles Avenue in the Uptown neighborhood, stood in the sanctuary where roof slates rest in the pews. Outside, the brick steeple was reduced to rubble.

"Not this Sunday," Ms. Crawford said, when asked how soon services would resume, "but the next."

After passing through armed checkpoints, many business owners across the city were seeing their businesses on Saturday for the first time since Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29, eventually flooding 80 percent of the city and forcing mass evacuations.

They arrived in a city with little electricity and mostly undrinkable water, where soldiers did jumping jacks on Napoleon Avenue as a red sun rose. About 1,000 workers from Entergy repaired utility poles and untangled power lines from the fallen limbs of live oaks. The mayor has ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew indefinitely.

President Bush, who has faced sharp criticism for the federal response to the storm, pledged in his Saturday radio address to support the Gulf Coast in "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen."

A few businesses promised to reopen almost immediately. Others, crippled from storm damage or vandalism and looting, needed time to clean and make repairs. Most were on higher ground in a city where much of the land is below sea level. Several said they were relieved that the damage was limited, all things considered.

And for some people who never left the city, the return of the business owners meant more than just a neighborly reunion.

"I've got like two gallons of water left, so I hope people come back soon and open something up," said Bill Roach, 48, standing outside his second-floor room in an apartment house near the corner of Magazine and Jena Streets in the Uptown area.

Mr. Roach, pointing to the light traffic coming up Magazine, said he had expected more of a morning rush into town. "I'm surprised they're not lining the streets right now," he said.

Business owners were allowed to return over the weekend to four areas: Uptown, the French Quarter, the central business district and, across the Mississippi River, the neighborhood of Algiers. Before the storm, Orleans Parish, which has the same boundaries as the city of New Orleans, had 10,460 establishments with 208,288 employees and an annual payroll of $7 billion, according to a 2003 breakdown by the Census Bureau, the most recent available.

Residents are expected to be able to return to the same four areas on a staggered basis over the week, beginning with Algiers on Monday and ending with the French Quarter the next Monday. But many residents have been unclear on the schedule, and some began returning on Saturday.

The reopening could eventually bring as many as 200,000 people back to a city whose population was about 445,000 before the storm. There are no plans to re-open the most heavily damaged areas, some of which remain under floodwaters.

On Friday, the city released re-entry guidelines it planned to distribute at two primary entry points, the intersection of Interstate 10 East at the Pontchartrain Expressway and the West Bank Expressway into Algiers.

Among the warnings:

"You are entering at your own risk. The City of New Orleans remains a hazardous site, and ongoing health and safety issues are being assessed."

"You may not be outside between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m., either in a vehicle or on foot. This will be strictly enforced. Keep personal identification with you at all times."

"Police and fire services are limited. The 911 system is not fully functional at this time."

Mayor Nagin has said he has been criticized for not reopening parts of the city sooner. Others say it remains far from ready for residents.

Admiral Allen had previously warned of health risks from floodwaters, sludge and tap water.

"We will continue to work with local and state leaders to support the shared goal of allowing residents to eventually return in a safe and sustainable manner," Admiral Allen said in an earlier statement. "I urge all residents returning to use extreme caution if they return and to consider delaying their return until safer and more livable conditions are established."

In Algiers on Saturday morning, Serge and Mai Chatain found their business intact after driving all night from Houston to check on it. They own a nail salon, Anna's Nails, off of Gen. Charles de Gaulle Highway. "We open the door, and the phone rings," Mr. Chatain said. They agreed to meet the caller, a drugstore owner, at 4 p.m.

"They need nails," Mrs. Chatain said. "They have horrible nails."

Not everyone could get back to business so quickly.

Liem Vu, the owner of Newton's Discount Market in Algiers, found his store broken into and the shelves bare. Anything portable was stolen.

"Even the meat slicer, the microwave, the TV for the security camera," Mr. Vu said.

Mr. Vu said he sympathized with the looters, to a degree.

"Food, O.K.," he said. "People went a little bit too far."

Areas outside the city also allowed re-entry on Saturday.

Jefferson Parish, west of the city, had already allowed business owners to return and planned to allow full residential access beginning today. In St. Bernard Parish, where floodwaters had risen to 20 feet and the Murphy Oil refinery had spilled thousands of barrels, parts of the Arabi and Chalmette neighborhoods were opened at dawn for residents to take stock of their ruined homes.

In New Orleans, Gwen and John Deakle returned from their farm in Lumberton, Miss., to the elegant five-bedroom house they own on Royal Street in the French Quarter. They had been warned of damage behind the iron gates leading to the back patio, but not of the extent. A third-floor wall of Antoine's, a 19th-century French-Creole restaurant next door, had collapsed in their courtyard.

Although the power was out and the ferns had withered on the balcony, a flashlight-tour of the interior found the antiques intact behind the shuttered windows.

"Like everybody says, it could have been worse," Ms. Deakle said.

Despite concerns about the re-entry process, people reported few lines or complications, in part because the number of people returning seemed relatively small. Some people returning were surprised that, except for Algiers, most of the newly opened areas still lacked power. A spokeswoman for Entergy, Amy Stallings, said several obstacles were causing delays, including a door-by-door check for gas leaks in the French Quarter and water in office building basements, which often house electrical vaults.

The company will not restore power to areas where underground power lines are flooded, perhaps because of broken water mains.

"It's gaining water while we're pumping water, and we're not really sure where it's coming from," Ms. Stallings said.

Ms. Stallings said the company hoped to have power restored to the French Quarter and the central business district by Friday and to Uptown by the next Monday.

The heat that has helped the city dry out in many areas has also stewed rotting garbage. Even as signs of life returned to the pungent streets, the environment was hardly ideal for commerce.

The doors of the historic Napoleon House bar on Chartres Street remained closed. Across town, on South Carrollton Avenue, the Camellia Grill had boards in the windows. And Domilise's, the unpretentious po'-boy sandwich institution on Annunciation Street in Uptown, was silent, its broken sign blocking the front door.

At K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen in the French Quarter, the chef, Paul Prudhomme, has instructed his staff members to reopen "as soon as possible," said L. Carl Crowder, vice president for operations of the celebrity chef's restaurant.

The 235-seat restaurant regained power by late morning, but major obstacles remained before it could reopen, said Joel Poole, the human resources manager.

He said he had yet to hear from about half of the 30 people who work in the kitchen, many of whom lost homes and are living in shelters.

"Our big need," Mr. Poole said, noting the human flight from the city, "is going to be people."

Michael Brick and Michael Luo contributed reporting from New Orleans for this article, and Timothy Williams from Baton Rouge, La.