Employers Struggle to Pick Up the Pieces After Katrina

CareerJournal - FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE -- Sloshing through stagnant brown water, Raymond Rathle surveyed the ruins of his 10,000-square-foot frozen-food factory in west New Orleans last Tuesday, absorbing the full shock of Hurricane Katrina's destruction.
Two 25-foot-wide shipping doors had been blown off their hinges. Ceiling tiles floated alongside cooking-sauce packets. Everything was covered in "brown, muddy gook," he said. Rathle couldn't guess what the cleanup would take, much less when he might restart his Carnival Brands food business, which generated $1 million in revenue last year supplying crabcakes, meatballs and seafood gumbo to New Orleans' vibrant restaurant industry. "Most of my clients don't need my products now and probably won't for a while," the 45-year-old entrepreneur said glumly.
Thousands of companies large and small are grappling with the aftermath of Katrina...
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