Alex Brandon / AP file

Two years after Hurricane Katrina almost nothing seems the same in New Orleans, but one thing has not changed, a cool regard by business for what was once a major Southern commercial center. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)

The Thorntons had the resources to rebuild their house near the 17th Street Canal, but many of their neighbors needed help.

Denise Thornton set up an office in their home, creating a clearing house of information and supplies to help residents learn how to obtain required building permits and find help to gut water-logged homes and clear debris, among other things.

“In the early going, I’d come home and tell her about things we were able to accomplish and there was frustration on her part that she couldn’t see action on the ground in our neighborhood,” Doug Thornton recalled.

“What really made a believer out of her was the day we reopened the dome. She saw the excitement and the raw emotion, the impact this building had on people coming back into it for the first time,” he continued. “She realized this is really something special that needed to be done, and thank God it got done quickly.”

The dome is an increasingly busy place again. There’s the sold-out, 10-game home schedule of the Saints, including preseason games. There’s Tulane’s home schedule, which includes next Saturday’s game with No. 2 LSU, likely to draw another big crowd.

On Thanksgiving weekend, Grambling and Southern meet for the nationally televised Bayou Classic; the state high school championships follow. And from late December through January, the Superdome becomes the first venue to host three college bowl games in a season: the New Orleans Bowl, Sugar Bowl and BCS national championship.

“It’s a better building now, a lot better than it was before the storm, which I think is one of the real blessings that has come out of Katrina,” Thornton said. “Out of this disaster came opportunity, and in hindsight, many would agree it was absolutely the right decision at the right time ... not only for the symbolism, but the economic benefit. Can you imagine what happens to the hotels if we don’t have the Saints, the Bayou Classic, the BCS championship? All of those events were at risk.”

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