The Economists Voice has some interesting articles/columns on the economic impact of Katrina.
If you’ve never perused the sight there are other decent journals there. I think of the above Edward Glaesers’ Should the Government Rebuild New Orleans, Or Just Give Residents Checks? is worth some thought. Normally I just default to checks, but in this case I’m not so certain – mainly because just the other day I was trying to make a point that Afghanistan really should pay attention to its cultual history before its all lost. Parallels can be made to US cities -but that is a tangent – and not one I plan on picking up now.