Meanwhile, the search for skilled labor grows more pressing.
   "For people who had assets there already, as in the petrochemical sector, there is no choice but to rebuild because they have tens of millions of dollars of assets sitting there," Reisner says. "Their conversations were all about better housing for employees – 'Are we going to be able to get more employees and keep wages sane?' With signing bonuses and upping wage rates, is it going to be affordable to run these plants?"
   Reisner says the 50- percent depreciation component of the GO Zone program is very good, especially given the fact that it actually stretches to inland, "safe" counties. However, some GO Zone elements are only good until 2007- 2008, by which time many potential projects would not even have broken ground.
   "The flip side is 'Put out a quick date and people will jump right on board,'" says Reisner. "But the way corporate America works, you can't even achieve it

Louisiana Recovery Authority Louisiana Economic Development GO Zone resources

without a Herculean effort, so why try?"
   The reason to try, most agree, is people. And the method may involve in part a new level of marketing and communications, of which the Gulf Coast Third- World- style mission was one example.
   "There's a huge marketing program that has to happen to get Mississippi and Louisiana seen in a different light," says Reisner. "What makes somebody in California or Nebraska feel good about investing in New Orleans or Mississippi? How do you make people feel good about funding this rebuild? I spent six months there, and when I went there I was thinking about Bourbon St. and Super Bowls, not about Tulane and Loyola being so close together. You think that about Boulder, Colo,, and it has less university and less research. But I have yet to meet anyone in the U.S. who thinks of Louisiana that way."
   DuPont's John Little thinks Louisiana has something in common with all those states, and hopes the message keeps getting through loud and clear.
   "I think we need to do what we can to keep this in the forefront of the country's attention," he says, "and make sure we're arm in arm with our fellow citizens in that region."