Not too far away from Children's Hospital is Loyola University. Bret Jacobs, Loyola's CIO, regularly checks the progress of the neighborhoods that adjoin the university's campus.

In one neighborhood that Jacobs drives through, there are contractors' signs at almost every house, and workmen everywhere. "Everywhere there's rehab work," he said.

As Jacobs drives farther away from the campus, keeping an eye out for potholes that can appear overnight, the brown, rust-colored lines that show floodwater levels are still visible on many buildings, gradually rising higher. In areas where the flood waters were highest, fewer contractors are at work. But Jacobs points to a house with a sign that says "We will rebuild." Looking at the devastation around him, he said, "there is a real sense of 'we have to.'"