A Letter From New Orleans Five Years Later

摘要

It has already been 5 years since Hurricane Katrina, the most costly natural disaster in American history, drowned New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast. Moment by moment as levees softened and failed and flood waters poured in, scores of television cameras beamed indelible images of horrific human suffering into every living room across America. Over 1,800 people died as a direct result of Katrina, most of them homebound elderly in New Orleans. In addition, over 250,000 persons were rendered homeless and over half of those have been permanently displaced. No other event in American history, including the great flood of 1926, has displaced so many people. A full year after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' population was less than 50% of what it had been before the storm. In one year New Orleans went from America's 33rd largest city to its 89th.