A Look At How Katrina Affected Louisiana

February 26th, 2006

Population: An estimated 189,000 New Orleans residents have returned, compared with around 500,000 residents pre-Katrina.

Deaths: 1,080 in Louisiana.

Missing: Nearly 2,000 listed as missing by the Find Family National Call Center.

Destroyed houses: More than 215,000. Total housing units lost, including apartments, is 1,847,181.

Property and infrastructure losses: $75 to $100 billion.

Debris: Katrina created 60.3 million cubic yards; 32.1 million cubic yards had been removed as of February.

Businesses: Of 81,000 affected businesses, 42,000 have fully reopened; 18,700 were destroyed.

Tax revenue: $549 million lost (including gambling, sales and income taxes.)

Schools: More than 835 schools damaged statewide. Only 20 out of 128 public schools have reopened in New Orleans; 83,821 of 244,608 college students statewide were displaced. Of the displaced college students, only 16,480
have re-enrolled in state.

Jobs: More than 220,000 jobs lost.

Wetlands: More than 100 square miles of wetland destroyed by storm surge.

Hospitals: Katrina closed eight of 16 hospitals in the New Orleans area, reducing the number of hospital beds from 4,083 to 1,760.

Electricity: A total of 189,000 households and businesses received electricity from Entergy New Orleans pre-Katrina, compared with 65,000 to 70,000 today.

Estimated damage to power infrastructure: $275 million in infrastructure repairs in New Orleans.