Hurricane Katrina Pain Index 2011

Posted on Aug 24, 2011

Flickr / kallao

Many homes trashed by Katrina in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward sit scarred and empty today.

With Hurricane Irene fixing to beat up much of the American Mid-Atlantic, now may be a good time to examine the legacy of Hurricane Katrina and U.S. “government bungling” for many of the still-stunned inhabitants of New Orleans.

Bill Quigley and Davida Finger, professors of law at Loyola University in New Orleans, have assembled a brief sociological survey of Gulf Coast residents after the storm, using figures reported in the press. The statistics reflect the condition of Katrina survivors and those who came afterward by race, gender and economic class. —ARK

CounterPunch:

343,829. The current population of the city of New Orleans, about 110,000 less than when Katrina hit. New Orleans is now whiter, more male and more prosperous. Source: Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.

... 3000. Over three thousand public housing apartments occupied before Katrina plus another thousand under renovation were bulldozed after Katrina. Less than ten percent, 238 families, have made it back into the apartments built on the renovated sites. Only half of the 3000+ families have even made it back to New Orleans at all. All were African American.Source: Katy Reckdahl, Times-Picayune.

... 70. Seventy percent more people are homeless in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. People living with HIV are estimated to be homeless at 10 times the rate of the general population, a condition amplified after Hurricane Katrina. Source: Unity for the Homeless and Times-Picayune.

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