Letters From Our Readers

Thanksgiving Data

Dear friends and colleagues,

Thanksgiving… our first major holiday since Katrina. How shall we be thankful? What should we be thankful for? It’s become a tradition here at the Data Center to share with you some uplifting numbers about New Orleans at Thanksgiving time. This year, that task is rather daunting… to say the least. The data about New Orleans, it’s depressing.

Still, many traditions believe that gratitude is one of the most nourishing emotions for the soul. That in times of overwhelming grief and loss, the most healing thing we can do is to focus on being grateful for small things.

So, focusing on the small things — we are thankful that at least some data is starting to trickle in to support the rebuild process. It’s not much — there are so many big, unanswered questions — but we’d like to pass it around the table in the spirit of sharing what we’ve found.

Here’s some of the data we’ve been working on…

What was the extent of the flooding? Seems this is a simple question, but it’s not, because the floodwaters rose to different levels on different days in different parts of town. And there are different ways to measure “flooding.” We’ve done the research and have published what we believe to be the most useful flood boundaries.

How many citizens are returning and to what parts of town? This is a tough question, so we’re tackling it in small pieces. The first step was to use the flood boundaries to determine contiguous areas of high ground (most likely to have homes that can be easily returned to) with “open” zip codes layered on top. We’ll add more information to answer this question as it becomes available.

Where are the zip code boundaries? Much of the current information that’s useful for returning citizens is organized by zip code. We’ve created a zip code reference map to help you interpret the City’s Situation Reports and other data.

Where did we all go? We’ve received many requests from nonprofit agencies wanting to know where New Orleans evacuees landed. FEMA has given us a map showing the last address of record for FEMA applicants, and a table that gives the number of FEMA applicants in metropolitan areas around the country. This data includes applicants outside NOLA in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama; it’s a good start, but we’re in the process of trying to get neighborhood information specifically for New Orleans.

What’s the elevation of different neighborhoods? As the storm approached, we were simultaneously evacuating and publishing information that would be needed to help understand what was happening. This elevation by neighborhood map has been downloaded more than 15,000 times since we posted it on August 29th.

Where are there concentrations of historic housing outside the protection of federal historic districts? We got this question from the National Park Service’s Center for Preservation Technology & Training and figured the answer would be of interest to a wide variety of neighborhood and housing groups.

What neighborhoods had the highest percent of households without cars to evacuate in? Since Katrina, there’s been much interest at the federal level in paying for good information to support emergency planning. Congress’ Committee on Government Reform asked us to demonstrate how this would’ve looked in New Orleans with an example map of pre-Katrina households without access to vehicles.

What progress is being made in rebuilding New Orleans? Researchers at the Brookings Institution are creating “the Katrina Index” — a set of 40 economic and social indicators (unemployment rates, labor force size, operational buses, schools open, etc.) that measure the impact of rebuilding efforts in Orleans Parish. This information will serve as an independent, fact-based, resource for leaders to monitor and evaluate rebuilding efforts. It is being published in early December and should bring a great deal of national attention to the state of affairs in New Orleans. We’ll send you a quick note when it is released.

You’ll find all of these maps and data at our web site

We’ll continue to diligently seek out more information to help with the rebuild, and we’ll share it with you as soon as it becomes available. Please keep in touch, and “Ask Allison” if you need data for the work you’re doing in New Orleans.

With gratitude for your continued support of New Orleans, and your continued interest in New Orleans data - Happy Thanksgiving.

The Data Center/Knowledge Works team

The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center is a product of Nonprofit Knowledge Works and is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Technology Opportunities Program.