by The Associated Press

(New Orleans, Louisiana) The mood was upbeat in parts of New Orleans today. Business owners began returning with promises to rebuild the city.

A long line of cars began snaking back in at exactly 7:20 this morning.

Mayor Ray Nagin invited business owners back into the heavily gay Garden District and the French Quarter and to the Central Business district, which had little flooding. He says he wants to fight a national impression that the city is "tainted," and that it's "not ready."

But there are limits to the readiness. A handout from Nagin's office tells those returning, "You are entering the city of New Orleans at your own risk." It then goes into detail on potential health hazards from water, soil and air.

Electricity has been restored to some dry parts of the city, although Entergy Corp. said only about 17 percent of the city has power.

The mayor has disagreed with the head of the state's health department about the condition of the city's water, insisting residents could now wash in it, though they cannot drink it.

For some, Thursday marked their first view of what was left. Others didn't need a formal invitation to return. Those who had already slipped in were ready to welcome back their fellow business owners and patrons.

The staff at the Bourbon Pub sneaked back into New Orleans last week to inspect the damage. The gay dance club at the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann suffered little damage. Staff began cleaning and getting rid of "skunky" beer but then had to leave town because of hurricane Rita.

They returned on Monday to resume the cleanup.

"Well be open at 2:00 Friday," an employee who goes by the name of Pineapple told 365Gay.com. "And we're expecting a lot of the old regulars back."

Several other gay bars in the French Quarter opened Thursday evening.

At Igor's, a pub and coin laundry in the city's Garden District, owner Halina Margan had returned after Katrina - and never left, despite Hurricane Rita's threat last week. She was ready to open for business on Thursday, and get ready for the influx of returning residents.

"Igor's has never closed until this nasty little ... hurricane," Margan said. "It's lonely here. We need people."

At precisely 7:20 a.m., a long line of cars began snaking down St. Charles Avenue, the Garden District's main thoroughfare, lined with stately homes and small businesses - and now littered with portable toilets, downed tree limbs and signs advertising hurricane cleanup help "for cheap."

Mary Russo, of Jefferson, La., parked her car Thursday in front of Shanty Too, her niece's boarded-up boutique on chic Magazine Street, and started to cry. The trash on the streets was the worst, she said through her tears.

Her niece couldn't bear to come, so Russo and other relatives were there to bring what was salvageable to her other shop in St. Francisville, about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge.

The Magazine Street store will close down for good, Russo said.

"I just can't believe this has happened to the city," she said.

Earlier this week, Nagin formally opened the Algiers neighborhood, which has electricity and clean water.

If all goes well, as of Oct. 5 only the Lower Ninth Ward, which was hit especially hard by the flooding, will remain cordoned off, Nagin said.

Louisiana's official death toll from Katrina rose to 896 on Wednesday. Only 32 bodies have been positively identified and released to funeral homes chosen by their families, said Dr. Louis Cataldie, who heads the body recovery process in Louisiana.

©365Gay.com 2005

Mach said:

I'm going to the French Quarter to help rebuild! ...one beer at a time!

CynthiasSocks said:

i signed up for red cross training ... to go help