Stay far, far, far away!

You won't help anyone trying to get out of ground zero by returning before it is safe. Your belongings are only material things, you have your family (wife/children) that is safe and sound and a vehicle (which is more than a lot of people had after Katrina hit).

Extend your vacation and call relatives out of the disaster area to check on the status of friends/family in the disaster area. This is where having a disaster plan comes into play.

Remember, there were no available hotel rooms within even adjacent states when Katrina hit, so don't try to go back.

Alternatively, look into your homeowners insurance policy and see what it covers in an emergency. Mine covers lodging expenses for displacement, I'm sure a call to your insurance agent would be very helpful.

This would also be a good time to prepare your vehicle emergency kit and add to it copies of insurance policies (besides vehicular), marriage license, etc. and back-up your family photos/data on the computer so that you can store them in your vehicle (inexpensive DVD-+R work well). Also make a home video of all of the rooms in your house (property) to document what you have in the home and mail it to a relative out of the state for "off-site safety storage" Do this once a year. This will prevent you from losing the things that are most valuable at home and will help you greatly when filing insurance claims if there is a total loss at home.