A group of people wearing ponchos walk through the French District during Hurricane Ida.

How Hurricane Ida could reshape New Orleans' future

After Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, New Orleans lost half its residents and saw a spike in gentrification. Could Hurricane Ida derail the progress it has made since?

As Hurricane Ida's outer rain bands hit New Orleans on Sunday, a group of people walk through the New Orleans French District. The storm made landfall on Sunday afternoon as a Category 4 storm with 150 mile per hour winds.
Photograph by Brandon Bell, Getty Images

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became a different city: half the size, with a smaller Black population, fewer low-income residents, and more entrepreneurs. How Hurricane Ida, which roared into the Big Easy Sunday on Katrina’s 16th anniversary, will further rearrange life there depends on multiple factors—chief among them, how many billions are sent to clean up and how long it takes to restore power to more than a million customers who lost it.

Social scientists have been saying for decades that natural disasters only accelerate pre-existing trends and increase inequities. A city with a declining population before a disaster will continue to decline, just as a booming city will continue to boom, as San Francisco continued to boom

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