Date of Graduation

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Economics

Advisor/Mentor

Logan Miller

Abstract

On August 28th, 2005, the National Hurricane Center announced that a category five hurricane sustaining over 160-mile winds was cruising through the Gulf of Mexico, headed straight for the coasts of Louisiana and Alabama. By August 29th, 2005, Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana as a category three hurricane. After surviving a significant amount of rainfall, the levee system in New Orleans failed, putting over 80% of the city of New Orleans underwater and leaving many residents without homes (“Hurricane Katrina”, 2025). Despite a mandatory evacuation order, many people were forced to take shelter in their homes or shelters provided by the city. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Census, 26% of New Orleans did not own a vehicle, compared to 9% nationwide (Fussell, 2015). Among poor African American households, 59% lacked access to a car (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2005). The mandatory evacuation order was issued only 24 hours before Katrina made landfall and many low-income residents did not have a form of transportation or the financial support to evacuate on such short notice (HISTORY.com Editors, 2025). Hurricane Katrina has been ranked the most expensive natural disaster and one of five of the deadliest hurricanes in United States History, causing 1,833 deaths and around $108 billion in damages (National Weather Service, n.d.). While existing research has analyzed the immediate economic impacts of Hurricane Katrina, including changes in income distributions and poverty levels, most of these studies are limited in scope, focusing on New Orleans as a whole and ceasing data collection in 2010 or earlier. There has been less attention given to how these effects vary across individual parishes.

Keywords

Hurricane Katrina; Poverty: Natural Disaster

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