Moldy sheetrock, soaked carpets, inches of accumulated mud. If this is all you have you are among the lucky ones. Most houses flooded for a couple of weeks with anywhere from a foot to ten feet of putrid water.

The basic advice is to gut to at least four feet above the waterline. You can leave the framing intact but everything else goes. If the framing is rotted you'll need to replace the rotted sections, but you may be getting close to a total teardown if that is the case.

Volunteer groups from around the country have helped gut New Orleans. That sentence doesn't sound so good but it one of the highlights of the storm. An outpouring of active assistance by strangers is more than refreshing.

Groups like Common Cause, Habitat for Humanity, the United Methodist Church and other private organizations without government funding (I will have to check this carefully) have moved into the city. Alternative Spring Break was one of the highlights. From March to August, student volunteers from around the country have descended on the city wielding hammers, crobars and shovels to clean the mud, muck and mold from thousands of houses. This has been a god send to thousands of elderly and low income residents who have not been able to hire construction crews to do the work.