New Orleans by the numbers, four years after Katrina

This August marks the fourth anniversary since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, devastating the New Orleans area. A new report from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center provides a snapshot of how far the recovery has come -- and how far it still has left to go. All of the figures below are from "The New Orleans Index: Tracking the Recovery of New Orleans & the Metro Area" by the GNOCDC and the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.



Percent of New Orleans' pre-Katrina residences that are actively receiving mail today: 76.4

Percent receiving mail in the largely African-American and working-class Lower 9th Ward: less than 49

Rank of the Lower 9th Ward among New Orleans' planning districts in terms of residential demolition permits: 1

Number of unoccupied residences in New Orleans: 65,888

Percent of total pre-Katrina school enrollment in the New Orleans metro area as of this past spring: 78

Percent of all public and private school enrollment that black children accounted for pre-Katrina: 49.1

Percent as of spring 2009: 42.8

Percent of school enrollment accounted for by Hispanic children pre-Katrina: 3.6

Percent as of spring 2009: 5.6

Percent of school enrollment accounted for by white children pre-Katrina: 44.3

Percent as of spring 2009: 48.3

Unemployment rate for the New Orleans metro area in May 2009: 5.9 percent

Unemployment rate for the area in June 2009: 7.3 percent

Unemployment rate nationally: 9.5 percent

Percent by which homes sales in the New Orleans metro area are down: 39

Percent by which new construction in the area is down: 48

Percent by which rents in the area have climbed since Katrina: 40

Typical monthly rent for an efficiency apartment today: $733

Amount that the state's Road Home residential rebuilding program has disbursed as of June 2009: $7.95 billion

Number of underinsured homeowners who received Road Home rebuilding grants: 124,219

Percent of those grant recipients in Orleans Parish who are rebuilding: 90

Percent of those in neighboring St. Bernard Parish who are rebuilding: 64

Number of Road Home grant applicants still awaiting a decision: 8,635

Amount FEMA has paid for infrastructure repair in the five-parish metro area since July 2008: $800 million

Total amount FEMA has obligated for infrastructure repairs in Louisiana since Katrina: $7.8 billion

Percent of that total amount that's been paid out to localities: 58

How vulnerable New Orleans remains to future storm-related flooding: still unknown

(Photo of New Orleans after Katrina from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)