hurricane katrina

Forget black cats, broken mirrors and unstoppable psychopaths in hockey masks -- on Friday the 13th, the biggest terrors sometimes hit our wallets. No, the Great Crash of 1929 didn't start on a Friday, but a fair number of financial disasters did.

As you hit the road for your final road trip of the summer, consider driving to one of the 10 states with the lowest prices on gas. Turns out, those sunny states also offer bountiful vacation options for the budget-conscious family.

Now that Hurricane Irene has passed, it's time to get back to discussing the country's biggest unnatural disaster: the economy. But here, too, Irene is making her impact felt, as economists and pundits across the country debate whether the hurricane will help or hurt America's bottom line.

So, let's assume you did the right thing in getting insurance to protect yourself against those times when Mother Nature comes knocking. Your next challenge may be getting the insurance company to pony up the cash instead of trying to deny your claim.

At times, 2011 has felt like a parade of natural disasters: Earthquakes and tornadoes and floods, oh my! But wait, there are more coming. Hurricane season has just begun, and the forecasts for 2011 aren't pretty. Before the next one hits, we look back at the nation's 10 costliest hurricanes.

The deadly tornadoes that struck the South and Midwest in April, the devastating quake in Japan and concerns about terrorist reprisals after Osama bin Laden's death should serve as reminders to property owners: plan for the worst-case scenario.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, an estimated 100,000 displaced New Orleans residents have yet to return home. What impact have these evacuees had on the local economies of their new homes?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency housed Katrina-displaced people in 145,000 trailers. Today the trailers -- many of which emitted unsafe levels of formaldehyde -- have become a symbol of incompetence in the face of a national tragedy.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is older, wealthier and less diverse, but it's also home to more well-off young people -- demographic changes that could attract more businesses and developers, and give a real lift to efforts to rebuild the Big Easy.

Following the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, the numbers of tourists visiting New Orleans dropped to nothing. The city's $5 billion tourism industry slowly recovered, however, and is now once again approaching pre-Katrina visitor levels.