Hurricane Katrina was the worst storm to hit the United States in decades and the damage that it did was enormous. Given all the damage caused by the storm it should be no surprise that the aftermath was pretty bad as well. The main problem was the damage that the storm did to the local economy. Even five years later New Orleans is nowhere near back to the level it was at before the storm.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was almost as severe as the storm itself. The biggest problem of course was the failed levees in New Orleans that caused the city to become flooded. This was what actually caused most of the damage. It is also what made the city uninhabitable for months afterwards. Even five years later the flood damage is far from being completely repaired. Nearly the whole city ended up under water. The flooding also caused a great deal of environmental damage. The city of New Orleans is a major port for oil coming into the country; there are also a number of refineries in the area. When these ended up under water a great deal of oil got spilled and ultimately ended up in the Gulf of Mexico. There was also a great deal of sewage that got spilled as well.
The biggest aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was probably the financial impact that it caused. The damage was estimated to be over eighty billion dollars, add in the cost of the clean up and the rescue effort and the government had to commit one hundred and five billion dollars to clean up the mess caused by Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately this only covered the cost of the property damage the total economic damage was much greater. It is believed that over a million people lost their jobs as the result of the storm. Many businesses failed with most of them unlikely ever to be restarted. The total damage of the storm in terms of the economic impact is believed to be over one hundred and fifty billion dollars.
One of the biggest impacts of the storm has been the number of people who were displaced as a result. The entire city of New Orleans had to be evacuated with most of the people ultimately ending up in Houston. Even five years later many of these people have not returned to New Orleans. In some cases this is by choice but in most cases it is out of necessity. Either their homes still haven’t been rebuilt or they have no job prospects in New Orleans. The rebuilding of New Orleans is going very slowly and it will likely take many more years before they return to the same population level the city was at before the storm. It will also take many years for the area’s economy to rebound as well. They are basically rebuilding it from scratch.