Even though Hurricane Katrina's devastation was painfully obvious along the Gulf Coast some 1,100 miles away -- experts say its total cost should easily top Hurricane Andrew's record $30 billion hit to property and lost income -- its impact reverberated through the region yesterday.

Industries heavily dependent on fuel and travel faced severe disruptions -- US Airways canceled 171 flights Sunday through yesterday, and expects to cancel at least two more flights today.

The hurricane's timing "certainly is not helpful" for an airline struggling with high fuel costs and attempting to merge with another carrier and pull out of bankruptcy, said US Airways spokesman David Castelveter.

"But at the same time, what is more important is the recovery or the rescue of all these people in these areas so severely hurt by the hurricane," he said. "Our issues pale in comparison to those."

Damage confronted by other local companies was more direct.

Moon-based FedEx Ground said its distribution centers in New Orleans, Gulfport, Miss., and Mobile, Ala., were hit by the storm and flood, with the Gulfport building still inaccessible due to flooding.

It remains to be seen if several 84 Lumber Co. stores that sat in the path of Katrina, in such places as Gulfport and Slidell, La., are just damaged or just entirely or entirely gone, said company spokesman Jeff Nobers. The Washington County-based chain's employees couldn't get to the stores.

"We secured stores as best we could and told people to get out of there," said Nobers, who added that employees in the region hope to know more in a day or two.

For other local companies with operations in hard-hit areas, it was still wait-and-see yesterday.

About 500 employees on oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico that are operated by Michael Baker Corp. were waiting to return to work, said David Higie, spokesman for the Moon engineering and energy services firm.

The workers were evacuated over the weekend in advance of the storm, and it's not certain when they will return because of damage to onshore facilities used in transporting the workers. "We should have a better idea by the end of the week," Higie said.

Baker's engineering office in Jackson, Miss., which reopened yesterday after being closed on Monday, does a significant amount of work for that state's transportation department and expects to meet with them in the next few days once the damage to roadways has been assessed, Higie added.

PPG Industries got some good news: The Downtown-based glass, coatings and chemicals concern said its largest chemical plant, located in Lake Charles, La., was only minimally affected by Katrina's rage.

Only one of three pipelines at the facility, in the southwestern part of the state near Texas, was shut down Monday, allowing the plant to operate at about 90 percent of capacity yesterday, PPG spokesman Jeff Worden said.

Overall, oil and gas companies with operations in the Gulf of Mexico and the coastal region said it was too early to assess the extent of the damage, though early reports suggests that the many platforms and refining facilities were not hit as hard as some feared. Getting to them and getting them operating again, however, was another matter.

It's the loss of the production and refining capacity that experts say could do the most damage to the economy by keeping oil and gas prices at record nominal highs and, if prices keep rising, perhaps taking them to new inflation-adjusted highs, surpassing early 1980s levels.

PNC Financial Services Group Chief Economist Stuart Hoffman yesterday predicted gasoline prices will jump up again by Labor Day, perhaps by another dime a gallon, and will likely not decline as usual when the summer ends and prices for gasoline typically drop with lower demand.

Hoffman predicted that natural gas prices will likewise rise, making home heating bills "considerably higher" than last year even if the winter weather is normal.

"So you'll get hit with extra costs in filling up your gas tanks in summer and then get hit with extra costs of heating your home in the winter -- something that was occurring anyway," he added.

Corporate profits should also be negatively hit either directly or indirectly by the rise in fuel prices. Airlines are an obvious example and so are other transportation- and chemicals-related companies, Hoffman said.

Indeed, FedEx Ground's parent company, FedEx Corp., admitted the company is "concerned" about the rise in oil prices but noted that "it is not an immediate short-term issue for us" because of a 2.75 percent fuel surcharge on all FedEx Ground packages. The surcharge has been in place since February.

Similarly, Moon-based Nova Chemicals Corp. is awaiting to see what prices for petroleum, a key raw resource, do before deciding whether to raise prices, said spokeswoman Stephanie Franken. It has raised prices this year in response to rising prices, but like many companies, the ability to pass on costs works only as long as growth holds up.

Hoffman believes growth will hold up enough for the Federal Reserve to raise short-term interest rates again next month to quell inflationary pressures, but he says higher energy prices could forestall future increases if oil and gas prices don't subside somewhat.

In fact, it's possible that there could even be a bit of a pick-me-up from some of the reconstruction activity that will follow in Katrina's wake.

PPG's Worden, for example, said it's possible that PPG's glass-making operations could see a pickup in business for replacement windows for everything from bungalows to office towers. But expenses also may go up as its spends more for the gas to fire its furnaces and gas to fuel its trucks.

Despite the damage to its stores, 84 Lumber also can expect to see demand grow for its products as rebuilding begins, based on its experience last year in storm-battered Florida, spokesman Nobers said. The rebuilding, he added, can go on for months, even years.

Disaster funds and insurance will help get the construction started -- despite claims that likely will total in the tens of billions, insurance companies overall are in good shape and should be able to weather the crush, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

But consumers and businesses in many areas, especially those hardest hit by the hurricane, could face hefty increases in their insurance rates. Some could find it difficult to get coverage at all as insurers become more selective.

Any impact on rates should be minimal for policyholders in the Pittsburgh region, however, said Mark Dombrowski, spokesman for Erie Insurance, one of the top property insurers in the state.

"Insurers base rates on experience, on a region by region basis," he said. "Rates in the areas most heavily impacted [by the hurricane] would be most affected."

Standard homeowners and business insurance policies cover losses from wind and wind-driven rain, but not from floodwaters. Victims of flood damage will only be covered if they purchased separate flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program.

In contrast, most standard auto insurance policies cover loss from floods.

Erie Insurance doesn't expect a major hit from the disaster because it doesn't do business in the southern states where the hurricane roared ashore.

Still, the company yesterday planned to deploy a catastrophe van to a central location near Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina, where heavy rains and strong winds were expected as the storm plowed northward, Dombrowski said. The mobile office uses a satellite hook-up, allowing claims adjusters to file claims from remote locations that have lost power.

"We're following the track of the storm and will respond accordingly," Dombrowski said.