'They are looking for what's salvageable,' said Robert F. Tuesday, casino officials were escorting insurance agents through the wreckage, showing them the havoc Katrina wreaked.

But the damage is so extensive and the shock of the events so stinging and fresh, rebuilding efforts are far from underway. Most owners have said they are determined to rebuild the casinos, which look more like land-based buildings than barges.

The casinos that were responsible for the coastline's economic rebirth in the early 1990s have mostly been reduced to a tangle of broken rods and twisted metal beams, leaving 14,000 employees without jobs and the waterfront a colossal mess. Some were split in half, their slot machines spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico as if Mother Nature had hit the jackpot. The glitzy, three-story floating casinos that define this adult waterfront playland were picked up and hurled as much as a mile onto streets and sidewalks when Hurricane Katrina came blasting through over a week ago.

Katrina avila zia park casino