Martial Law will be declared and kept alive for quite some time, creating the emergency dictatorship rule that we have so far only read in sci-fis novels about. Refugees will be interned in isolation camps (remember the danger of epidemics, crimes, looting…). Haliburton will get the job of running the camps and rebuildung some infrastructure, pocketing about half of the relief funds. The insurance companies will declare large parts of the area a total writeoff. Oil production will slowly come up again. Environmental laws will be scraped so new refineries can be built without all these annoying environment concerns. Oil drilling in nature preservation zones in Alaska will start real soon now (you know, there clearly must be more diversified oil sources…). Global Warming has of course nothing to do with hurricanes, and is Junk Science anyway.

(Forgive me for being even more cynical then usual, but watching CNN with Bush on a completely staged visit to the disaster zone was a bit too much…)

Strongly recommended reading: Bruce Sterling Heavy Weather . He wrote it under the impression of watching the aftermath of hurricane Andrew in 1992.

UPDATE: Every time I think I am just cynical and pessimistic, reality moves as expected. Haliburton has already scored the first large cleanup / rebuilt contract…

UPDATE2: Haliburton & Co. get the fat rebuilding contracts. Even CNN is slightly pissed .