Trailer Solution

While taking Jane to her Tuesday night religion class I happened upon an old acquaintance of mine and it merits mentioning as another hurricane anecdote. he and his wife have four children who attend the same religious classes as does Jane. He owns one of the better restaurants in my area, Drago's.
In talking with Tommy he told me his home was destroyed by winds that literally blew off the roof. Rain flooded their upstairs rooms and filtered own into the rest of the house. There is nothing remarkable about that, as Hurricane Katrina has dealt the same blow to many others. But what is interesting is how he dealt with his restaurant. The restaurant was only slightly damaged and suffered no flooding, but the on-going problem here is the labor supply.
How was he to reopen when almost all of his employees were homeless? His solution was to petition FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for trailers so the employees cold stay in New Orleans and continue to work at the restaurant. The U.S. government is supplying free trailer homes to the homeless to use while they find other living accommodations or repair their residences.
Thus, he has 15 trailers on the restaurant property and Drago's continues to function. Not every business owner was so quick-thinking or lucky. Hundreds of thousands of Katrina homeless have petitioned for trailers but few saw them. Many moved out of the city forever leaving their employers stranded for workers and unable to open. When I dropped Jane off at her school for that class I decided to find fast food for dinner, as I had not had the time that day to cook.
But this fast food expedition is just another incident to show how commerce is crippled in New Orleans after Katrina. It took quite some time to find a place that was open. On that day, I saw 3 out of approximately 30 fast food shops open, and two of them were so crowded I did not attempt to stop there. the reason- no workers to operate the businesses.