One year after Katrina: Tragedy of the Crescent City

One year after Katrina, New Orleans and the surrounding area are slowly showing signs of growth and a return to normalcy. Two recent studies provide excellent overviews of the economic impacts the hurricane had on the area as well as the efforts New Orleans has made to recover from the storm’s devastation. The first study which was published in August of 2006 was done by the Brookings Institution. A “Special Edition of the Katrina Index: A One-Year Review of Key Indicators of Recovery in Post-Storm New Orleans” by Amy Liu, Matt Fellowes and Mia Mabanta, provides an overview of key social and economic indicators on New Orleans’ progress since the storm. The other study, published in June 2006, “Advancing in the Aftermath II: Tracking the Recovery from Katrina and Rita,” by Dr. Loren C. Scott, provides an extremely detailed account on the progress of recovery in the four MSAs along the Gulf Coast. In this brief article, we summarize key economic indicators and look at how the city and region’s economy has been impacted by the storm and its progress since. We rely heavily on these two studies and recommend them as outstanding sources for the economic impact the hurricane had on New Orleans