In one sense, New Orleans is back to business as usual. In the French Quarter, there was the regular mix of drunken frat guys, distinctive oddballs and run-of-the-mill tourists. And in the Garden District, the most striking site was street after street of gorgeous Victorian houses. 

But then it was also surprising that driving through some of the worst-hit areas in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward how many houses and businesses were so dilapidated and boarded up, still bearing the spray paint markings from the search and rescue teams. Inside, the houses were completely stripped bare of anything — furniture, toilets, fixtures — of value. It was pretty eerie to think of the people trapped in those homes three years ago and what a mess it must have been.