New Orlean's poor people; it's all in the numbers

Andrea Batista Schlesinger
It's all in the numbers
09.21.2005
Opinion

For many, it is the photographs of people and families impacted by Hurricane Katrina that have created the most profound impressions. Here is another kind of story, told instead by the numbers:

The Drum Major Institute Injustice Index: Hurricane Katrina

Percentage of New Orleans residents living below the poverty level in 2003: 20.8

Rank of New Orleans among the American cities with the highest rate of poverty: 17

Ratio of African-American households in New Orleans that did not have access to a car in 2000: 1 in 3

Percentage of evacuees in Houston shelters who had not heard about the evacuation order

before the hurricane hit: 25

Number of people it was the city's official policy to assist so they wouldn't have to "take it upon themselves to find their own means of evacuation" according to the New Orleans Director of Emergency Management: 0

Date on which then-Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown told CNN that hurricane victims who failed to evacuate bear some responsibility for their fates: September 1, 2005

Date on which President Bush praised the efforts of FEMA Director Michael Brown, saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.": September 2, 2005

Date on which Brown resigned as FEMA Director: September 12, 2005

Number of Mississippi and Louisiana National Guard personnel who would otherwise have been available to deal with the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina who were instead deployed to Iraq, according to FEMA: 6,000

Number of people in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi hit by Hurricane Katrina: 9.7 million

Rank of Mississippi and Lousiana respectively among the states with the highest poverty rate: 1, 2

Annual earnings of a Mississippi carpenter working full-time for the area's prevailing wage: $18,034

Date of President Bush's executive order authorizing federal contractors in the area to pay less than this wage: September 8, 2005

Funding requested by the Army Corps of Engineers in 2005 for projects protecting residents of New Orleans and surrounding areas from hurricane-related flooding: $22.5 million

Amount budgeted by President Bush for the projects in 2005: $3.9 million

Amount ultimately provided by Congress in 2005: $5.5 million

Approximate tax cut over ten years given to General Electric in the corporate tax bill passed by Congress and signed by the President in 2004: $8 billion

Contributions to the Red Cross Hurricane Relief effort as of September 7th, 2005: $485 million

Estimated amount by which repealing the estate tax would reduce charitable giving every year: $15 billion

Number of hurricane evacuees housed in shelters on September 6th: 182,000

Rank of New Orleans among 43 major American cities based on their levels of residential segregation for African-Americans: 11

Date on which House Majority Leader Tom DeLay reportedly spoke to three boys at an evacuation center, comparing their experience to camp and saying: "Now tell me the truth, is this kind of fun?": September 9, 2005

Number of children nationwide living in households that had difficulty meeting basic food needs in 2002: 13.1 million

Percentage of African Americans living in poverty nationally: 24.7%

Percentage of African Americans living in poverty in New Orleans: 34.9%

Date on which the Federal Emergency Management Agency briefed the public on its five-day exercise simulating a hurricane topping the levees of New Orleans: July 23, 2004

Date on which former First Lady Barbara Bush said of hurricane survivors who fled their homes "this is working out very well for them.": September 5, 2005

Percentage of evacuees in Houston who say they will never fully recover from the effects of the hurricane: 38