There will be no rush to judgment on the approximately 100,000 buildings in New Orleans damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and there will be no demolitions without public review.

"The vast majority of those structures can be saved," said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, who toured the city this week. "I'm confident we can avoid the wholesale demolition some of us were worried about."

Moe's comments came at the beginning of a meeting yesterday in Baton Rouge, La., with dozens of federal, state and local experts in historic preservation and cultural resources.

The trust, which convened the meeting and opened it to reporters around the country via conference call, announced it will try to raise $1 million to help pay for building assessments, which will be done by 100 teams of inspectors, each of which will include a preservation specialist. The assessments are expected to take about two months.

"Everything is proceeding very cautiously, methodically, legally and with every consideration for preservation," said a New Orleans historic preservation officer who did not give his name.

Some of the "shotgun" houses in the 9th Ward were submerged for more than a month following Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and survived.

The key, one expert said, will be moving quickly, after the water recedes, to dry out the buildings, remove carpets, drywall and insulation, and prevent mold and rot.

The Katrina devastation "has the potential to be one of the largest cultural disasters in the history of America. But I don't think it's going to be," Moe said. "We are in this to stay."

The trust is asking Congress to enact a $60 million grant program, to be administered by the Louisiana historic preservation office, for rehabilitation of uninsured and under-insured buildings.

The trust also is requesting a broader use in affected areas of the federal tax credit program for rehabilitation, now limited to buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, either individually or in a district.

The American Institute of Architects, which did not attend the trust's meeting but issued its own statement yesterday, also is asking for expansion of preservation tax credits. Its focus, however, is on rebuilding, and it will ask Congress for a $50 million grant program to fund 10 "New Community" demonstration projects in the affected areas and $200 million for building or rebuilding schools.

Buildings are not the only concern.

The American Association for State and Local History, which holds its annual meeting in Pittsburgh this week, is recruiting volunteer conservators to help with the preservation of photographs, documents and other materials.

"We have conservators coming in from all over the country," said Conover Hunt, who's been working out of a recreational vehicle on an alligator farm.

Even taking into account the buildings that will be saved, "this is probably the single largest loss of African-American-related buildings in the history of the United States, and with that, the culture," said Karen Huff, chairwoman of the Black Historical Society of San Diego, who spent six days touring affected neighborhoods.

"When we sent out the initial team, an elderly lady there said, 'My father played with Louis Armstrong and I have a lot of photographs and a letter [that are missing],' and I'm afraid we're not going to get that stuff," Huff said.

Parked near the Superdome are 18 trucks filled with records of marriages, land sales and other notarized transactions dating to the late 19th century. Rescued from the basement of a courthouse in New Orleans, they await transfer to a warehouse, when a suitable one can be found.

"They are not going back to the courthouse basement," said archivist Ann Wakefield.

"People are working together to try to do this right," Moe said. "They understand that New Orleans is a different kind of city. It has a unique culture, and so much of that is embodied in its architecture."