New Orleans mops up after Gustav close encounter

By Matthew Bigg and Tim Gaynor

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Workers armed with rakes and brooms fanned out across New Orleans to clean up after Hurricane Gustav on Tuesday while officials eyed the city's levees warily and told hundreds of thousands of evacuees to stay away a bit longer.

Half the city swamped by Hurricane Katrina three years ago lacked power and the sewage system was damaged but Gustav's floodwaters ebbed, easing pressure on the concrete and earthen barriers that failed in 2005, flooding 80 percent of the low-lying city and stranding thousands of people.

U.S. Coast Guard crews flying over U.S. oil and gas platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico said they found no major damage and no oil spills. Oil prices slid to a five-month low as supply fears eased.

Gustav, weaker than it had been as it approached, barged ashore on the Gulf Coast on Monday with 110 mile per hour (177 kph) winds. Many had feared a repeat of the destruction caused by Katrina, the costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

The New Orleans levees bent but did not break. Water surged over floodwalls and squirted through cracks and holes, pooling inches (cm) deep in surrounding streets.

"It appears the levees, the floodwalls, have maintained their structural integrity," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said.

But with debris-strewn streets and power outages affecting 1.4 million homes and businesses, officials said the 1.9 million Louisianians who evacuated as Gustav grew to a 150-mph (240-kph) monster days before it hit the Gulf Coast would not be able to return home right away.

The French Quarter, the heart of New Orleans, began coming back to life on Tuesday as proprietors swept up debris and reopened their doors.

"It's good to be back," said Gerald Covey at the Market Cafe, where he served coffee to a clientele comprised mostly of clean-up workers. "Now we just need some customers."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said much of the city lacked power and hospitals were staffed by skeleton crews.

Although it landed far enough west of New Orleans to deal the city only a glancing blow, Gustav was a crucial test for a levee system still being rebuilt after it collapsed during Katrina, which killed about 1,500 people across the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused $80 billion in damage.

CLEANUP "ANGELS"

In a virtual ghost town of 10,000 people who defied orders to flee, residents emerged from boarded up homes relieved to find only broken trees and toppled power poles and signs.

Hispanic laborers, who were instrumental in cleaning up New Orleans after Katrina, were back at work.

"I don't know if they were legal or illegal, but they are the angels. Period," said retiree Raymond Bankston as he watched a crew of Central American workers head out to clean up.