Residents of New Orleans are breathing a sigh of relief after the city avoided wholescale destruction at the hands of Hurricane Gustav.
Around two million people fled the city over the weekend as fears that the storm, which had been classified as a category four hurricane and killed more than 100 people in the Caribbean, could cause as much destruction as Hurricane Katrina did in 2005.
However, by the time Gustav made landfall it had been downgraded to a category two storm with the worst of it by-passing New Orleans.
Around 10,000 residents remained in the popular tourist area of the French Quarter which occupies higher ground and escaped the worst of the floods three years ago.
Those who remained in the city have written blog posts for the BBC reporting the worst they encountered was heavy winds and rains.