Damage done, but Hurricane Gustav was no Katrina

Various preliminary insurance industry estimates put the expected damage to covered properties at anywhere from $2 billion to $10 billion; high, but well short of Katrina's $41 billion.

Entergy Corp. said the 825,000 electrical outages suffered by its customers were second only to Katrina's 1.1 million. Revenue effects weren't available but it was clear that Gustav would not have the long-term effects of Katrina, which drove one Entergy subsidiary, Entergy New Orleans, to bankruptcy court for protection from creditors.

"Number one, 80 percent of the city isn't flooded and, number two, it doesn't look like we'll have the mass evacuation length of time and lack of customers," said Entergy spokesman Morgan Stewart.

"A business without customers is the definition of bankruptcy," Stewart said. "We didn't have that kind of loss this time."

Entergy New Orleans filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in October 2005. The company emerged 20 months later with a plan that paid off all creditors. ENO also received $200 million in federal funding for part of its storm recovery costs.

State regulators also approved a $1 billion bond sale and a surcharge on customer rates at two other Entergy companies, Entergy-Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States-Louisiana to pay off the bonds.

Port of New Orleans spokesman Chris Bonura said it was too early to estimate monetary damages but overall damage appeared to be light, especially in comparison to Katrina. Most of the port's facilities are on the Mississippi River and he described damage there as minimal. "There's some little things here and there, signs down, fences down, transformers that are damaged."

His main message: Cargo was safe.

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