During Hurricane Katrina many of the industrial and business neighborhoods of New Orleans and other major and smaller cities along the Gulf Coast suffered huge losses. For some business owners it was the building that was lost, for others it was the inventory and supplies. For still other businesses the customers they once served were now living elsewhere or tourists simply weren’t coming to the city the way they once did.
Getting businesses back to New Orleans and other areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina proved to be just as difficult as getting residents to return in the worst hit areas of the city. In 2007, two full years after Hurricane Katrina only about 65% of the businesses that were pre-Katrina had reopened their doors for business. Few if any new businesses initially came into the city due to shortage issues with construction materials and builders, zoning changes within the different areas and an overall hesitancy to build in an area that may suffer the same type of destruction at a later date.
The major tourist areas such as The French Quarter, the arts and entertainment district, the major public parks and squares as well as the major tourist attractions opened relatively quickly after Katrina, leading to hospitality types of business ventures having a fairly high reopening rate when compared to other retail and services types of industry.