The New Orleans Saints played their 2006 season opener at the Superdome, and for many the game represented a city on the road to recovery from Hurricane Katrina. However, the city’s recovery has been slower than an outsider might think. Public policy think tank The Brookings Institution has been researching Katrina recovery since the day the storm landed, and publishes a monthly index of progress on its website, in addition to suggestions for ways to improve the recovery effort. One year after the storm, in August 2006, about 35% of the city’s pre-Katrina population lived in New Orleans and only about 66% of New Orleans Metropolitan area public schools reopened.

The full August 2006 Katrina Index can be found here and the Brookings Institution’s Katrina research home page, with indexes updated to November, can be found here.