NOLA.com: Bill relief

Those NO survivors with outstanding debts such as mortgages, credit cards and car payments may get relief. NOLA.com has the story here.:

Banks and financial institutions this week began announcing packages that allow customers in storm-affected areas to delay a variety of payments without penalty.

Lenders are offering moratoriums on house notes. Credit card companies are pledging to allow customers to postpone payments for two months or more without penalty, and the country's Big Three automakers said they will allow consumers to postpone car payments.

Fannie Mae, the federally chartered company that has helped millions of first-time home buyers acquire loans, is giving "mortgage relief" to borrowers in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and other states facing hardship as a result of Hurricane Katrina. The agency will suspend mortgage payments for up to three months, reduce payments for up to 18 months or - in the most severe cases - create longer loan payback plans.

"What matters most to hurricane victims in those first few days after a storm hits is basic safety and survival, not concerns about making their next mortgage payment," said Pam Johnson, senior vice president at Fannie Mae.

Excellent news. Here's more: the water begins to recede from the city:

Water continued to recede from New Orleans into Lake Pontchartrain Saturday morning, Major Gen. Don Riley of the Army Corps of Engineers told CNN. “Water is flowing out of the city into the lake… The lake levels are about a foot below what’s in the city,” he said.

Also, Charity and University hospitals are evacuated at last:

The total evacuation of the 2,200 storm-stranded patients and staff at Charity and University hospitals is now complete, a top hospital official said Friday night.

About 150 staff and students at the affiliated Medical Education Building downtown are still holed up in their facility but should be moved out soon, said Don Smith Burg, chief executive officer of the Louisiana State University Hospital System, which oversees the medical institutions.

“The buildings are empty,” Burg said, marking the end of an exhausting week of privation at the public hospitals, where supplies of basic provisions ran so low that some staff inserted IV solutions in their arms to stay hydrated.

Welcome developments, at last.