One year after Katrina

Three weeks from Tuesday will mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Aside from the occasional Anderson Cooper visit, public attention has largely drifted from the Gulf Coast -- but the aftermath of the storms is still deeply felt by the region's residents, both those who have returned and those still scattered across the country.

New Orleans remains a city of contrasts, often along race lines. Boosters note that nearly half the city has returned -- which is a low number, given the resources pledged to rebuilding the city. But the important point is that the city's pain is not equally shared:

The oft-given statistic in the press is that about half of New Orleans residents have returned. But that's a misnomer in some ways, said Church World Service Disaster Response and Recovery Liaison Lura Cayton.

"Some areas are 75 or 80 percent occupied, while others are nearly uninhabited," she said.

The "nearly uninhabited" neighborhoods are those of the poor and working class, largely African-American population that remains locked out because they don't have money to rebuild, because schools haven't been rebuilt, or other basic barriers that make returning impossible.

As part of the Institute's Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch project, we'll be releasing a major report on the state of the Gulf on the anniversary, "One Year After Katrina." It will be loosely modeled on our widely-circulated report at the 6-month mark, the "Mardi Gras Index."

Here's a teaser from the upcoming report, which gives a snapshot of the challenges the workers who are rebuilding the city are facing:

ONE YEAR AFTER KATRINA INDEX: JOBS AND LABOR

Unemployment rate among Hurricane Katrina evacuees who are now back in their original homes: 4.2%

Unemployment rate among those evacuated who aren't back in their original homes: 23%

Date in June 2006 that unemployment assistance was terminated for all Katrina evacuees: 23

Number of unemployed evacuees who were cut off the rolls on that date: 64,000

Estimated number of Latino workers that moved to the Gulf Coast after Katrina: 100,000

Percent of construction workers in New Orleans estimated to be undocumented Latinos: 25%

Percent of undocumented workers in the Gulf that report difficulty receiving payment for their work: 28%

Amount of wages that contractors had not paid to workers but were eventually recovered by the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance: over $700,000

Percent of undocumented workers in Gulf that report using hazardous substances or working in dangerous conditions: 28%

Percent that say they were not given protective equipment: 19%

Number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Office personnel dispatched to the Gulf in September 2005, including officers for "detention and removal" of undocumented workers: 725

Number of bi-lingual staff the Department of Labor had in Louisiana and Mississippi to investigate mistreatment of workers, as of May 2006: 5

For more information or to pre-order a copy of the report, contact Elena Everett.