How has New Orleans population changed 5 years after the disaster?
Actually 100% of the people moved away after Katrina. Realize that the city was 95% evacuated before the storm struck and the ones who didn’t/couldn’t leave were evacuated about a week later. People were then prohibited from returning home for up to 6 months, and the prohibition was enforced by a ring of military checkpoints. At the time Katrina struck, the City of New Orleans had a population of about 475,000 and the metro area (which included the City) had a population of almost 1,400,000. Today (5 years after Katrina), the City of New Orleans is back to between 350,000 and 375,000 people. The metro area is back to about 1,200,000 people.
