The Slidell city administration was breathing a big sigh of relief this morning in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav.

Fearing the worst from the storm, which was at one point a Category 3 hurricane, Slidell residents returned this morning to a relatively unscathed town as compared to Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

"Everything is up and running," said Slidell police spokesman Capt. Kevin Foltz. After the storm bulled through the city Monday morning, the city had problems with the sewage system and the 911 system, and there was a citywide power outage. Foltz said the sewer system was back to full operation, and residents can flush their toilets with confidence. After the storm, the power outage shut down the system, and it took about eight hours for the system to power up after electricity had been restored.

Power problems also affected the 911 emergency call system, but Foltz said people can now dial 911 and will be connected to the 911 operators in case of an emergency.

CLECO spokesman Danny Schaus said that by 6:30 this morning, 65 percent of CLECO customers had their power restored. Currently, there are still 10,203 customers in the Slidell area without power, out of the total 36,000 electric customers in the city.

Schaus said CLECO'��s out-of-state crews had moved into the city, and they were working as fast they could to restore power to all customers.

"We really hit the ground running this morning," Schaus said. CLECO plans to have 85 percent of their customers hooked up to the grid by Friday.

There was some flooding in the Palm Lakes subdivision in south Slidell with at least 4 feet of water. By this morning, police had reported that water had gotten into at least five houses, but their survey of the area was not complete.

The majority of the flood waters had receded this morning, but there was still some water at the entrances to Camellia and Palm Lake drives, making traffic slow.

"Palm Lake is drivable," Foltz said. "There is still some water, but cars can get through."

This morning there was a Palm Lake resident mowing his lawn, and a U.S. Postal Service truck was driving through the subdivision delivering mail.

On the crime front, Foltz said police have had no problems since Sunday night.

'��We have had no arrests and no looters,'�� Foltz said.

Traffic may still be a concern, though, for police. Even though Slidell is open for returning residents, they have not all returned, Foltz said, and he expected a traffic problem by 3 p.m. today.

"A lot of people are about six hours away from Slidell, so they won'��t be coming in until this afternoon if they left by 8 this morning," Foltz explained.

Louisiana State Police said all roads in Slidell and St. Tammany Parish are open.

"Everything is going well, and traffic is free-flowing," said Troop L spokesman, Trooper Louis Calato.

He said evacuees from New Orleans and points south are being allowed across the Causeway, the Interstate 10 Twin Span bridge and the U.S. Highway 11 bridge going south.

"The New Orleans police removed the barricades on the south end of the lake, and people are moving on smoothly," Calato said.

Tuesday afternoon, many returning evacuees were being stopped by State Police at the Twin Span and U.S. 11 bridges because New Orleans had not lifted its restrictions. A lot of evacuees were camping out at empty gas stations near the Gause and Oak Harbor I-10 exits. This morning, those gas stations were empty of evacuees. The Shell station at I-10 and Gause Boulevard was even pumping gas to out-of-town evacuees and Slidell residents.

If there is one fly in the ointment, Calato said, it is the sporadic power outages that have affected traffic signals in and around Slidell. A lot of traffic lights are working, but there are busy intersections without functioning lights. Calato said that in the past 48 hours, state troopers have investigated five serious accidents at these intersections. There were no serious injuries in the accidents, but Calato said motorists have to stop speeding through the intersections without traffic signals.

"Treat all intersections with non-functioning lights as four-way stops," warned Calato. "We want our people to come home, but we want them to come home safely."

He said that if a traffic light is blinking red, the motorist must stop. If the signal is blinking yellow, cars should slow down and exercise caution when going through the intersection.