Hurricane Season 2005



Fact:

-Since Hurricane Katrina and Rita hit August 31, 2005 no major construction project has been started to restore the marsh.

-Some funding for such projects is to be recieved with the recent offshore oil revenue sharing bill.

Statistics:

Dollars:
- The total cost of damages will exceed 200 billion dollars. This estimate includes the costs incurred by the insurance industry, the federal, state and local governments, charitable organizations and 200,000 homes and possessions lost forever. When all is totaled, Hurricane Katrina will be the most expensive natural disaster ever.

Deaths:
- 1580 Louisiana residents died in Hurricane Katrina. (Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals)

Missing:
- 449
remain missing as of May 1, 2006 (The Advocate May 3, 2006)

Housing:
- 204,700 housing units in Louisiana were destroyed or had major damage. (FEMA)

Debris:
- Hurricane Katrina created 22 million tons of debris
- Hurricane Rita create 2.6 billion tons of debris
- 714,000 pieces of white goods (refrigerators, stoves, etc.) have been collected for recycling. (LA Dept. of Environmental Quality)
- Contractors have collected 2.5 million pieces of hazardous waste. (LA Dept. of Environmental Quality)
- An estimated 350,000 vehicles, most in the Greater New Orleans area, are waiting to be recycled. (LA Dept. of Environmental Quality)

Wetlands Lost:
- 1,900 square miles of wetlands disappeared before Katrina over the last 150 years. Katrina and Rita caused an additional loss of 100 square miles. Louisiana has watched over 25% of her wetlands disappear.

Entergy Losses :
- 28,892
poles were destroyed; 5,779 transformers were destroyed; and there were 1.2 million customer outages. (Entergy Corp.)

Other:
- 18,700 businesses were severely damaged or destroyed. (BLS)
- 220,000 jobs are estimated to have been lost due to the hurricanes. (BLS)
- 40 public K-12 schools initially were destroyed by the hurricanes. 835 schools received some damage. (LDOE)
- 12,000 teachers were displaced. (LDOE)
- 175,809 public school students were displaced. 72,479 of those students were displaced out of state. (LDOE)
- 84,058 Post-Secondary students were estimated to have been displaced by hurricanes Rita and Katrina
- 30 hospitals were initially closed due to hurricane damage. 20 of these hospitals remained closed as of March 9, 2006. (LA Hospital Assoc.)
- 38.1 million cubic yards of debris have been removed as of April 11, 2006, making the job approximately 60% complete. (FEMA)
-In February 2007 a new addition to the New Orleans Yellow Pages had 90% of the pre storm advertisers. ( The Advocate February 21, 2007)