[lbo-talk] 1 in 3 New Orleansians lost everything

[Doug Henwood]

[tables and graphics omitted]

Gallup Poll - February 28, 2006

One in Three New Orleans Residents Lost Everything Following Hurricane
Blacks affected more severely than whites


by Jeffrey M. Jones
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new CNN/USA 
Today/Gallup survey of current New Orleans 
residents reveal that Hurricane Katrina had a 
profound impact on their personal financial 
situations. Roughly 6 in 10 residents say they 
suffered major financial losses, including one 
in three who report losing everything they had. 
The poll indicates that black residents suffered 
more profoundly than whites. Most residents who 
were working before the hurricane are working 
now, though a significant number are without 
work. Seven in 10 residents have filed insurance 
claims, and though many are dissatisfied with the 
way their claims have been handled, a relatively 
small proportion believe they are being cheated 
by the insurance companies.

The Feb. 18-26, 2006 poll interviewed a random 
sample of adults currently living in the city of 
New Orleans. Respondents were contacted on 
landline telephones and cellular telephones, 
since many areas of the city still do not have 
working telephone service in their homes five 
months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the 
city.

Personal Financial Situation

When asked to assess the impact of Hurricane 
Katrina on their personal financial situation, 
32% of those surveyed say they "lost everything." 
An additional 27% say they "took a major 
financial hit but did not lose everything." 
Twenty-eight percent suffered "some financial 
losses but nothing major," and 13% say they were 
not "hurt that much by the hurricane."

Many of the media news images following the 
hurricane suggested that blacks in New Orleans 
were more severely affected by Katrina than 
whites. The poll provides strong support for this 
notion -- a majority of blacks, 53%, say they 
lost everything following Katrina, compared with 
just 19% of whites.

Differences are also evident by respondents' 2004 
household incomes. Among those whose income two 
years ago was less than $50,000, 44% say they 
lost everything, compared with just 20% of those 
whose 2004 income was $50,000 or more.  

While race and income tend to be correlated, the 
data suggest that income has an independent 
effect beyond that of race, though even at 
similar income levels, blacks appear to have 
suffered more than whites.

Job Situation

Seventy-five percent of those surveyed indicated 
they were working before Hurricane Katrina; now, 
58% say they are working. In addition to the 17% 
who are unemployed since the hurricane, an 
additional 7% are currently working, but in a job 
not as good as what they had before the 
hurricane. 
   
Most working New Orleans residents, however, are 
still in the same job they were at before the 
hurricane. Many others are in a new job, but one 
that is just as good as the job they had before 
Katrina.

Again, blacks seem to have been affected more by 
the hurricane. While 71% of whites are working 
now in the same job they were before Hurricane 
Katrina, only 42% of blacks can say the same. 
Blacks who were employed before the hurricane are 
more than twice as likely as whites to be 
currently out of work.

Recovering the Losses

The poll asked respondents whether they have 
tried to file any insurance claims to recover 
losses from the hurricane and 72% say they have. 
Of these, more are dissatisfied (56%) than 
satisfied (44%) with the response of their 
insurance companies. But only about one in four 
New Orleans residents who have filed an insurance 
claim believe they are being "cheated" by their 
insurance company, while the remainder think the 
insurer is doing a bad job with the claim, or are 
satisfied with the insurer's work.

New Orleans residents who had greater financial 
means before the hurricane are significantly more 
likely to have filed an insurance claim -- 83% of 
those with 2004 household incomes of $50,000 or 
more have done so, compared with 61% of those 
with incomes of less than $50,000.

While there are essentially no differences by 
income in regards to whether people are satisfied 
with the way their claims have been handled, 
there are significant differences by race. 
Fifty-two percent of whites who have filed claims 
are satisfied with how they have been handled, 
compared with just 31% of blacks who have made 
claims. Blacks and whites who have made claims 
are about as equally likely to say they felt 
cheated by the insurance company. Therefore, the 
satisfaction differences observed between whites 
and blacks are not due to a sense of being denied 
a legitimate claim, but, instead, the perception 
of the job the insurance companies are doing in 
handling those claims.
 
Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews 
with a randomly selected sample of 800 adults, 18 
years and older, who are currently living in the 
city of New Orleans, conducted Feb. 18-26, 2006. 
For results based on this sample, one can say 
with 95% confidence that the maximum error 
attributable to sampling and other random effects 
is ±4 percentage points. Respondents were 
contacted on both landline telephones and 
cellular telephones. The sample was weighted to 
adjust for the likelihood that a person would be 
included in the sample based on the number of 
telephone lines they have and the number of 
people who use those lines. In addition to 
sampling error, question wording and practical 
difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce 
error or bias into the findings of public opinion 
polls.