Mission Incredible: Clean Up, Then Tear Down New Orleans
Six months after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launched its debris removal mission in the Gulf Coast, much of the area still looks like a battlefield. Although the Corps says the work is on schedule, contractors say progress is gummed up by sporadic population return, uncertainty about future flood risk, politics, hesitant cash flow and miles of red tape.
Still, particularly for contractors in Louisiana, debris cleanup is about the only grease for the economy these days.