Facts and Figures
80% of New Orleans floooded.
Orleans parish population is down 59% (as of feb. 26 2006). Ajoining parishes St. Bernard and Jefferson are down 82% and 10% respectively.
The metro area civilian labor force:
down 32%.
Pre-Katrina, the restaurant industry was the
number one private employer in Louisiana.
According to The Times-Picayune, the number of restaurants and other food outlets in the New Orleans metro area is down by 62%. Of the 418 restaurants in devastated St. Bernard Parish before the storm, only 32 were open in February. Almost 1,000 of the 3,700 Pre-Katrina Orleans Parish restaurants are now open. About half of the 2,600 Jefferson Parish restaurants are back online.
28,500 metro area hotel rooms are available for use. Pre-Katrina: 38,364; down 26%.
40% of all seafood eaten in the USA comes from the Louisiana Coast. 42% of the oysters. 10% of the shrimp.
In 2004, Louisiana crawfish farmers harvested 69.5 million pounds, worth $41.7 billion. Crawfish fisherman brought in 8.3 million pounds of wild crawfish worth $5 billion.
The 2006 hurricane season starts in less than 90 days.