With Small but Steady Steps, Cleanup and Repair Progressing

NYT- NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 10 - After nearly two weeks of crisis, officials and workers here and in other devastated parts of the Gulf Coast began making small but meaningful strides Saturday in restoring services and rebuilding the shattered infrastructure.
About 700 city residents were temporarily allowed to return to their homes on Saturday to check their property and to retrieve valuables in largely affluent neighborhoods like Spanish Fort on the northern edge of the city along Lake Pontchartrain and in the Lower Garden District, flush along the crescent the Mississippi River forms around this city.
At City Hall, running water had been restored and one engineer said he expected the building to have power soon. Workers carted city property records from the basement, saying they would be refrigerated to prevent mold from damaging them.
Health officials revised the death toll to 154, from 118 a few days earlier, but said it would not be the final count. They said caution, accuracy and respect were their goals and that they would not work hastily.