Use whatever cliche you want to describe America's small businesses--the lifeblood, the heart and soul, the glue that holds Main Street together. No matter what you call them, Katrina got them. It drained the lifeblood. It threatened to stop the heart and drown the soul. And it is still dissolving the glue as we speak.

"A small loss to a small business is just as important as a big loss to a big company," said a strip-mall realtor in Mobile, Ala., named Marl. He stood on the mangled roof of one of his properties with his adjuster and his roofers. They were speaking contractorese--lingo about decks, plies and lightweight concrete--and negotiating by the square foot, by ...