Has New Orleans Recovered?

New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina has the dubious honor of having been able to drastically reduce the 2005 estimated population of New Orleans from 454,865 to just 90,000 people in August 2005. Pre-hurricane households numbered 198,000.

Two years later, in 2007, New Orleans had only slightly more than 137,000 registered households who got mail. Fortunately, though authorities differ as to actual numbers, it is generally believed that residents and businesses are being re-established in New Orleans. One problem that New Orleans leaders have to solve is that up to 51% of flood prone New Orleans is found at or slightly above sea level.