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Katrina to COVID: New Orleans' Black community pounded again

Allison Plyer of The Data Center estimates that the COVID health and economic crisis will be more severe on Black New Orleanians than Katrina was.

Credit: AP

Mary and Barrett Duplessis pose for a portrait in their home in New Orleans, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. Levee breaches following Hurricane Katrina dumped 6 feet of water into the home of Mary Duplessis and her husband in 2005. She remembers lots of paperwork and bureaucracy in her Katrina recovery, and she recalls the scenes of misery at a convention center where thousand were trapped without power or running water. But, for her, COVID-19, has been worse. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

NEW ORLEANS — As the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall approaches, New Orleans' Black community is again being pummeled by disaster.

This time it's the coronavirus pandemic. Data show Black residents are dying at greater rates from COVID-19, and they’re less able to bounce back from the economic devastation that has been caused by closures to stem the disease.

Allison Plyer of The Data Center estimates that the COVID health and economic crisis will be more severe on Black New Orleanians than Katrina was.

Many Black residents work in the city's hospitality sector, which has taken a devastating hit from the virus.

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