The market knows from experience that infrastructure problems can emerge long after a hurricane strikes; early reports following Katrina’s landfall in 2005 erroneously said the flooding in New Orleans was not going to be problematic. Stocks fell in overseas trading Monday after crude fell below $111 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and their declines will weigh on the Dow Jones industrials and other indexes.

First place to look, the airlines compaines and their stocks. Fun stocks to play include:

Aug 29 4:03pm ET † Company Name	Price	Change / %Change	Volume	52-Wk Range	Market Cap
AAI	Airtran Hldgs Inc	2.40	+0.01 / +0.42%	2,130,980	10.90 - 1.28	280,999,200
ALK	Alaska Air Group, Inc	21.01	+0.06 / +0.29%	627,550	28.56 - 10.10	756,759,190
AMR	AMR Corporation	10.33	+0.17 / +1.67%	13,740,877	26.00 - 4.00	2,598,377,210
CAL	Continental Airlines Inc	16.25	+0.15 / +0.93%	9,292,190	37.79 - 5.91	1,784,201,250
DAL	Delta Air Lines Inc Del	8.13	-0.06 / -0.73%	10,810,936	21.10 - 4.00	2,469,918,390
HA	Hawaiian Holdings Inc	9.03	+0.28 / +3.20%	649,108	9.86 - 3.11	429,656,430
JBLU	Jetblue Airways Corp	6.07	+0.02 / +0.33%	4,059,549	9.98 - 3.04	1,642,912,270
NWA	Northwest Airls Corp	9.78	-0.09 / -0.91%	7,680,595	21.00 - 4.68	2,477,763,000
SKYW	SkyWest Inc	17.09	-0.37 / -2.12%	668,750	29.50 - 10.84	974,574,340
LUV	Southwest Airlines Co.	15.23	-0.26 / -1.68%	6,552,272	16.49 - 11.02	11,177,784,360
UAUA	Ual Corp	11.11	+0.11 / +1.00%	20,281,635	51.60 - 2.80	1,406,459,340
LCC	US Airways Group Inc	8.49	+0.33 / +4.04%	13,342,059	33.96 - 1.45	943,680,480

Gustav depletes airlines’ Labor Day business

ATLANTA — By disrupting travel to and from the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Gustav denied the airline industry some critical revenue over the Labor Day holiday weekend.Gustav was also expected to nick tourism, insurers and utilities. Although quantifying losses in these sectors – and the region’s energy infrastructure – will be difficult until the storm that made U.S. landfall Monday blows over, early indications suggest the impact wasn’t nearly as bad as after Hurricane Katrina, which struck three years ago.

Some Gulf Coast retailers and construction companies are even likely to see a moderate boost in business.

“After a hurricane, when government aid flows dramatically, it tends to have actually a positive impact on economic growth, because now we’re spending huge amounts of money to rebuild, shore up, in ways that never would have been spent had we not had a hurricane,” Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pa., said.

Some observers were breathing a sigh of relief that the storm weakened as it came ashore in south Louisiana, avoiding a direct hit on flood-prone New Orleans and boosting hope that the city would avoid catastrophic flooding.

But the weather was severe enough to force the cancellation Monday of more than 135 flights to and from airports in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

“It will be a big hit to the airlines for September,” said AirTran Airways spokesman Tad Hutcheson. “It’s usually a tough month. The only bright spot is the Labor Day weekend. Those pretty much were full flights we’ve had to cancel.”

AirTran canceled 23 flights Monday due to the storm, while Delta Air Lines canceled 21, Continental Airlines canceled 28 and Southwest Airlines canceled 65. Some airlines were hoping to resume service to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport on Tuesday, though it was unclear when flights would be able to resume to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

Airlines were issuing refunds or rescheduling affected passengers on other flights. Many were waiving fees for customers who made flight changes due to the storm.

Robert Hartwig, president and economist at the Insurance Information Institute, said insurance payouts will likely not be nearly as high as those suffered from Hurricanes Katrina or Rita in 2005.

SOURCE: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310ap_gustav_economy.html