"Faith and Hope in New Orleans:
 Dominicans after Katrina"

The Power of Katrina
"At a Glance”
Introductory Snapshot

 

THE City of New Orleans 

BEFORE KATRINA
August 2005

• Population – 485,000 people
• All normal city services – water, electricity, gas, postal delivery, telephone – fully functioning
• Tourism – 10.1 million visitors per year; provides 85,000 jobs for NOLA citizens
• Transportation – 3 electric streetcar (trolley) lines; many bus routes connecting city points and suburbs
• 9 hospitals fully functioning
• 81,000 businesses operate in the city
• Public Libraries – 13 locations

 

 

 

 

AFTER KATRINA
           2007

• Population – 223,000 people
• City services destroyed or seriously disrupted

40% of city has no electricity

59% of city has no residential/business access to natural gas

Telephone service and mail delivery non-existent in areas devastated by floodwater

• One trolley line (St. Charles) operates; 85% of the buses were destroyed; 17 % of pre-Katrina bus service is operational
• 6 hospitals are closed
• 98% of the large businesses (budgets of over $20 million) are operating
• 42,168 small/medium businesses are open; 20,260 of them operate part-time
• The Metro area lost 190,000 workers; many of them in health/education services
• Unemployment rate – 7.2% higher than pre-Katrina
• 30% increase in suicide rate
• 9 libraries are open; all of them still have some degree of flood damage

Snapshot text by Peggy Ryan, OP (Caldwell)

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