West Mobile More Crowded Since Hurricane Katrina

Disaster workers flood restaurants and hotels

MOBILE, Ala. -- It was 7 p.m. on Thursday, and the LongHorn Steakhouse on west Mobile's Airport Boulevard was packed. The wait staff was racing from table to table, the rib-eyes and T-bones were flying out of the kitchen, and the line of customers waiting to be seated stretched into the parking lot.

"Who are all these people?" asked bartender Laura Collier, slinging margaritas and 20-ounce mugs of draft beer to the boisterous crowd. It was a question she had no time to ponder but one that was being asked frequently around west Mobile nearly five weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.

Local hotel rooms are filled. Nearly all available rental properties have been leased. And restaurants, particularly those west of Interstate 65, have never been busier.

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Topics: Mobile Alabama, Hurricane Katrina, Gulf Coast