The Katrina Index: Gulf health in critical condition

Two years after Katrina, the Gulf Coast isn't a very safe place to live. The following is our final installment of The Katrina Index from our, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action, released this week.

Two Years after Katrina: Community Health

Number of patients seen on a typical day at D'Iberville Free Clinic, opened in Mississippi's Harrison County after Katrina: 140

Number of free clinics created post-Katrina that are still operating in Harrison County, but that Mississippi's medical licensing board is considering shutting down over concerns about competition with for-profit doctors: 4

Percent increase in New Orleans' death rate compared to the two years before Katrina: 47

Of the seven general hospitals New Orleans had before Katrina, number that are operating at pre-storm levels: 1

Portion of New Orleans' uninsured that would be helped by the Bush administration's plan to cancel rebuilding of Charity Hospital and instead use federal dollars to buy private insurance for the poor: less than half

Number of months that elapsed between EPA's December 2005 announcement that sediment from Katrina's floodwaters wasn't expected to cause health problems and the agency's clarification that that this applied only to "short-term" visits: 8

Number of Katrina-flooded homes that EPA tested for chemical contamination, as its Science Advisory Board suggested: 0

While EPA assured New Orleans residents that they were being protected from the risk of demolition-related asbestos inhalation, the number of air monitors the agency installed in the predominantly African-American Lower Ninth Ward, where demolition work has been concentrated: 0

Months that passed between Sierra Club's May 2006 report documenting dangerously high air levels of formaldehyde-a chemical linked to cancer and depression-in 83 percent of FEMA trailers tested and the agency's decision to temporarily suspend deployment and sales of those trailers: 15

Factor by which suicide attempts among residents of Louisiana and Mississippi FEMA trailer parks has increased since Hurricane Katrina: 79