By the same token, commercial assets got away fairly lightly in comparison to Hurricane Katrina. In a press release yesterday, Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment Inc.'s management team says its Boomtown New Orleans property in the West Bank neighborhood and the L'Auberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, LA, both sustained minor damage and should reopen later this week.

Matt Schwartz, a principal with New York City-based Domain Cos., says the Preserve, Crescent Club and Meridian in the New Orleans' Tulane Corridor did fine. "We had absolutely no damage at all," he reports, adding everything has been well-secured, including from a security standpoint. "Our own people were stopped numerous times by the national guard while they were trying to check properties," he says. "I'm happy every time I hear about that, that things are tight in terms of control."

Farther east in Biloxi MS, Drake Leddy, president of San Antonio-based Presidian Cos. Ltd., says the $200-million Ocean Club Biloxi also weathered out the storm. "No leaks, no broken glass, nothing going on with the roofs," he says about the 120-unit first tower of the 18-acre development.

What helped in that endeavor, Leddy adds, is the tower contains glass windows that can withstand 135 mph winds while finished floors are 28 feet above mean high tide. "Building codes throughout the Gulf Coast have changed fairly significantly in the past three years with the advent of the stronger storms," he stresses.

Catastrophic risk models from AIR Worldwide Corp. in Boston Risk Management Solutions of Newark, CA show the widespread devastation of the storms. In press releases yesterday, AIR figured onshore property loss at $2 billion to $4.5 billion while Risk Management Solutions estimated residential and commercial losses would be $3 billion to $7 billion. The estimates don't take into account potential levee damage in New Orleans or potential flooding from additional rainfall.