Location

New Orleans is located in Southeast Louisiana at roughly 30.07 degrees North latitude and 89.93 degrees West longitude, approximately 125 miles southeast of the capital city of Baton Rouge. The city sits between the Mississippi River to the south and Lake Pontchartrain to the north.  It is bordered by Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany Parishes. The boundaries of the City of New Orleans and Orleans Parish are coterminous. Because of this, the names New Orleans, City of New Orleans, and Orleans Parish are used interchangeably throughout this Plan. The boundaries of the SWBNO, HANO, and NORA are also coterminous with the City of New Orleans/Orleans Parish.

The topography of New Orleans consists of mostly flat land with elevations across the parish close to, or below, sea level.  Although there are a few natural ridges in New Orleans, such as the Metairie Ridge and the Gentilly Ridge, the highest spots in the City are still only a few feet above sea level and are generally closest to the Mississippi River.  With the exception of the easternmost section of the parish, all of Orleans Parish is surrounded by levees.  These levees along the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain result in a topography that is similar to a saucer.  As a result of this topography, virtually all rain that falls in New Orleans must be pumped out of the city by New Orleans’ extensive network of drainage pumps.

Water figures prominently in the landscape of New Orleans. In addition to being located between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans also contains a large area of marshland.  Twenty-five percent of the parish is marshland.  While most of this area is uninhabited, the marshes provide recreation areas for people and habitat areas for wildlife.  The marshes also help protect the City from the effects of coastal storms.

History of Orleans Parish

The City of New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, and in 1722 became the capital of the French colony.  The original settlement was in the area now known as the Vieux Carre, or French Quarter. In 1763, New Orleans became a Spanish colony under the Treaty of Paris, and soon after, became the capital of Spanish Louisiana.  After being returned secretly to France in 1800, New Orleans was sold to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

New Orleans grew in size and prominence during the 19th Century.  By 1852, New Orleans was the third-largest city in the U.S. The growing population fueled development upriver and downriver from the French Quarter.  Already a major port for many decades, New Orleans became a railroad hub in the late 1800s.

In the early 20th Century, many of the swampy areas of New Orleans were drained.  This allowed development to continue towards Lake Pontchartrain, establishing the neighborhoods of Gentilly and Lakeview.  Further increasing development in parts of town, not along the Mississippi River, was the addition of 2,000 acres of reclaimed land, created by the Levee Board after building a seawall that extended 3,000 feet into Lake Pontchartrain in 1927.  Later developments extended further east and also took place on the west bank of the Mississippi River.  Starting in the 1960s and continuing into the 1980s, new neighborhoods were established in New Orleans East and Algiers.  In the 1990s, the new development was confined to smaller infill projects within the urban core, including condominiums in downtown New Orleans and the redevelopment of public housing.

New Orleans has been shaped in many ways by a history of public policy, planning, and infrastructure developments that prioritized investing in affluent areas and actively discouraged investment in areas where lower-income and minority people lived. Redlining and other policies and practices created inequitable access to resources and disproportionate exposure to hazards like flooding and extreme heat [1].

Like many major U.S. cities, New Orleans’s growth was outpaced by the growth of its surrounding suburbs during the second half of the 20th Century.  Commerce and industry followed the population movement to the suburbs.  New Orleans’s economy was further weakened by the oil bust of the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Between 1960 and 1980, the New Orleans population decreased by 21 percent.   Starting in the early 1990s and continuing through 2005, the rate at which New Orleans lost population slowed, and City officials worked to diversify the city’s economy to attract and retain residents.

In August of 2005, New Orleans experienced one of the worst disasters in the history of the United States when Hurricane Katrina made landfall.  Katrina caused almost a total evacuation of the city, flooded approximately eighty percent of the parish, and generated an estimated $17 billion in damages. Many areas of the city with the worst damage included neighborhoods developed on drained land that were originally low-lying swampy areas. Since the hurricane, population recovery has exceeded expectations.  Ten years after Katrina, more than half (40) of New Orleans’ 73 neighborhoods had recovered over 90 percent of the population they had before the levees failed. 

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, located approximately 41 miles off the southeast coast of Louisiana.  The accompanying well blowout and oil spill was the largest in US history, causing devastating environmental and economic impacts for New Orleans.  In June of 2015, the city accepted a $45 million settlement for losses incurred from the event. In the last decade, BP and drilling partners have put at least $71 billion toward mitigating the disaster effects along the entire gulf coast. The City has pledged to use the funds for resilience initiatives, including water management, and coastal and ecosystem restoration. A large portion of the BP settlement money has been explicitly dedicated to future restoration efforts along the Gulf Coast, with Louisiana receiving approximately $8 billion for coastal restoration and flood protection.

Climate

New Orleans is located in a humid subtropical climate zone characterized by hot, usually humid summers and mild to cool winters.  The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 54.4°F in January to 82.9°F in July and August. The lowest recorded temperature was 6°F on February 13, 1899.  According to the National Weather Service, the highest recorded temperature was 101°F in 1980, which was recorded at Louis Armstrong International Airport.  The month with the highest relative humidity in the city in August, while the month with the lowest relative humidity is March.

The average annual precipitation is 62.7 inches (1,590 mm); the summer months are the wettest, while October is the driest.  On average, there are 77 days of 90°F + highs, 8.1 days per winter, where the high does not exceed 50°F and 8.0 nights with freezing lows annually.  In a typical year, the coldest night is around 30°F.  It is rare for the temperature to reach 100°F or dip below 25°F.  New Orleans experiences snowfall only on rare occasions.  The three most recent snowfall events occurred in 2008, 2004, and 1989.

Climate change is already impacting New Orleans as the environment of South Louisiana changes rapidly, and these changes interact with the hazards laid out in this plan. Coastal marshes are eroding, and urban neighborhoods are experiencing subsidence, which increases flood risk. Sea levels are rising, and weather events are projected to increase in intensity, which is expected to accelerate coastal land loss. Extreme heat will continue to impact the health of residents and infrastructure, including energy demand and clean water supplies[2]. Impacts of climate change are woven throughout the hazard profiles in this documents, reflecting the cross-cutting impacts that rising sea levels, changing weather patterns, and rising temperatures have on the people and places in New Orleans.

The City of New Orleans has demonstrated a commitment to combatting climate change through a reduction in greenhouse gas pollution and increased resilience as outlined in the City’s Climate Action Plan: Climate Action for a Resilient New Orleans.[3] The Plan provides strategies to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by saving energy whenever possible and creating a culture of awareness and action about climate change and resilience.

Transportation

New Orleans has an extensive transportation network that is served by air, rail, water, and ground transportation systems.

Aviation

The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY), the largest airport in the region, is located in Jefferson Parish directly west of New Orleans, although it is owned and operated by the City of New Orleans.  MSY is considered a medium-sized hub airport, and as of January 2015, it has surpassed its pre-Katrina passenger levels.

The New Orleans Lakefront Airport is located in Orleans Parish on the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain.  The airport has three runways that serve mostly private and military aircraft.  The largest of the three runways is nearly seven thousand feet in length, allowing it to service large aircraft.

Rail

Amtrak provides passenger rail service to New Orleans.  Amtrak routes connect New Orleans to the Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and Southern California.  New Orleans is also served by six Class 1 freight railroads: Union Pacific; Kansas City Southern; Burlington Northern Santa Fe; Canadian National; Norfolk Southern; and CSX Transportation.  In addition, the Port of New Orleans owns a non-profit switching railroad, the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad (NOPBRR), which is a Class III railroad.  The NOPBRR interchanges with all Class 1 railroads serving New Orleans.  

Ports and Waterways

New Orleans is located in the heart of the world’s busiest port complex – Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi River.  The Port of New Orleans is one of America’s leading general cargo ports. It is ranked number one in the country for imports of steel, natural rubber, plywood, and coffee. The port is also a critical location for products exported from the petrochemical and agricultural sectors.   In 2016, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that the Port of New Orleans’ top commodities were: Petroleum and Petroleum Products (33.2% of throughput), Food and Farm products (30.1% of throughput), and Primary Manufactured Goods (11.9% of throughput). The Port of New Orleans is also the only deepwater port in the U.S. served by six Class 1 railroads.  In 2019, the Port of New Orleans saw more than 1.2 million cruise passengers, a new annual high, up from 1.18 million in 2018.  Numbers are expected to continue to increase annually with the addition of the Disney cruise line, along with more year-round itineraries available to passengers.

Important navigable waterways in Orleans Parish include the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC, or the Industrial Canal) and the Mississippi River. The IHNC connects the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.  From 1968 until 2008, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) provided a shortcut from the Gulf of Mexico to the Port of New Orleans.  Following Hurricane Katrina, Congress de-authorized MRGO, closing it to all ship travel in 2008.  MRGO was closed because of its magnifying effect on the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina.  To permanently close MRGO, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) constructed a rock closure across MRGO at Bayou la Loutre in 2009.  In 2010, the USACE constructed a floodwall with navigational gates at Bayou Bienvenue and the Gulf Intercoastal Water Way (GIWW) to reduce the risk of damage from future storm surges from the Gulf of Mexico through Lake Borgne.

Roads, Highways, and Bridges

Several major highways pass through New Orleans.  The largest is Interstate 10, which handles over 131,000 vehicles per day.  New Orleans also includes the spur routes I-510 and I-610.  U.S. Highways 11, 61 and 90 pass through New Orleans.  While New Orleans has many major corridors, it also has an extensive network of small streets.  Many of the streets in the older sections of the city are very narrow, and driving space for cars is further limited by the lack of off-street parking.

Traffic congestion is a major problem during an evacuation.  The number of routes out of New Orleans is restricted by the bodies of water surrounding the City.  The primary route out of New Orleans is Interstate 10, which runs east-west, crossing Lake Pontchartrain to the east, and the Bonnet Carré  Spillway to the west. Highway 61 provides an alternative to Interstate 10 going west, and Highway 11 are alternative routes going east.  Depending on weather conditions, the Causeway, which crosses Lake Pontchartrain, runs north to connect with Interstate 12 that runs east-west.  Highway 90, which runs east-west, is the only other evacuation route from the city that crosses the Mississippi River and acts as the primary evacuation route for residents in Algiers.

These limited evacuation routes for New Orleans are the same routes used to evacuate the lower-lying parishes that border the City, compounding congestion during evacuation.  The only routes out of St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes pass through Orleans Parish.  Similarly, residents in western parishes evacuating eastward must travel through New Orleans on I-10, creating more congestion overall.  In response, the State coordinates a regional evacuation plan that seeks to address this by coordinating phased evacuation and establishing contraflow, in which all travel lanes on the interstates move evacuees out of the New Orleans region.

Transit

Public transportation in New Orleans is operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA).  RTA operates bus lines throughout the Parish, Paratransit, Ferries, as well as four streetcar routes. New Orleans’ famous streetcars currently operate along St. Charles Avenue, Canal Street, Loyola Ave, Carrollton Ave, and along the riverfront through the French Quarter and Central Business District.  A new streetcar line along Rampart St., just north of the French Quarter, was completed in October of 2016, giving riders more options when traveling the city while furthering the RTA’s goal of improving local routes and services.

Community Assets

Locals and newcomers alike take pride in the City’s historic neighborhoods, food, music, art, and its diversity of lifestyles.  Maintaining New Orleans unique cultural heritage is a priority highlighted in the Master Plan and the Resilient NOLA Strategy.  New Orleans is perhaps best known for the French Quarter Historic District and the historic architecture throughout the city. New Orleans has 182 properties and districts listed on the National Register in the parish, including 26 National Historic Landmarks. 

The Riverfront, along the Mississippi River, is the location of the Convention Center, the Riverwalk, the Moonwalk, the Aquarium of the Americas, and Woldenberg Park.  Other main attractions downtown include the Superdome and the New Orleans Arena.  Although several hospitals and clinics downtown were heavily damaged by flooding from Hurricane Katrina, hospital re-openings and construction of new facilities have now been completed, including a new bio-sciences district. This district houses the new Veterans Affairs (VA) and Louisiana State University (LSU)/Tulane Teaching Hospitals at the University Medical Center (UMC).

New Orleans also offers many opportunities for recreation. Lake Pontchartrain and Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge provide access to outdoor and wildlife recreation.  New Orleans’ major parks and wildlife recreation include City Park, Audubon Park, the Audubon Zoo, Lafitte Greenway, Crescent Park, and Armstrong Park. Armstrong Park is dedicated to the tradition of jazz in New Orleans. Congo Square lies within the confines of Armstrong Park and is host to many annual celebrations, festivals, and other culturally significant events.  Following Hurricane Katrina, the City lost two important recreational assets – Six Flags New Orleans and the Audubon Louisiana Nature Center, both located in the eastern portion of New Orleans. The Audubon Louisiana Nature Center reopened in 2017.

New Orleans has many colleges and universities.  Major institutions of higher learning include the University of New Orleans, Tulane University, Loyola University, Xavier University, Southern University at New Orleans, Dillard University, Our Lady of Holy Cross College, and Delgado Community College.

New Orleans is a culturally rich city. Notably being the birthplace of Jazz and a bastion of hope during the civil rights era, New Orleans has an ingrained and invaluable cultural history.  It has many community assets ranging from social aid & pleasure clubs to non-profits supporting numerous art and music effort the city over. The city also is an advantageous location for international commerce.  Through the hazard mitigation planning process, the citizens and officials of New Orleans can help protect the city they call home.

NOHSEP coordinates maintenance of a list of Critical Facilities. The FEMA Local Mitigation Planning Handbook (2013) defines Critical Facilities as, “structures and institutions necessary for a community’s response to and recovery from emergencies. Critical facilities must continue to operate during and following a disaster to reduce the severity of impacts and accelerate recovery.”[4] During the planning process, the Planning Team worked with several City departments to update the Critical Facilities records, which are included in Appendix C.

Land Use and Zoning

Land use affects natural processes, like water runoff, and also informs what areas or resources might be at risk based on their location relative to a hazard. Table 1 provides a summary of land use in terms of the relative area of the parish and illustrates that the majority of the developable area has been urbanized.  The relative intensity of urban land use across the city is shown in Figure 2.

Zoning is a land-use planning tool that allows a community to control the location and intensity of development. Effective land-use planning leads to development patterns that reduce, or at least do not increase, risks from known hazards. Current zoning districts are shown in Figure 3.

Future Development Trends

Hurricane Katrina had a major impact on population and housing figures from 2000 to 2018. The widespread flooding throughout New Orleans in 2005 caused significant damage and destruction to housing. It displaced a significant portion of the population, which continues to be below 2000 figures. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that in 2018 New Orleans had a population of 391,006, approximately 70 percent of the population in 2000. Although the population decreased by 29.1 percent from 2000 to 2010, the trend has reversed. New Orleans saw a population gain of 13.7 percent from 2010 to 2018. The tables below show the population and housing unit estimates from 2000 to 2018.

The rapid population loss and long and difficult recovery in the years after Hurricane Katrina resulted in a large dispersed area of vacant lots. Having a complete picture of where these are located is useful for planning vibrant neighborhoods that incorporate green space and water management into the urban fabric. Figure 4 shows vacant lots identified by a recent study in collaboration with the UNO Center for Hazard Assessment and Response Technology (CHART), together with areas that are zoned as open space. New Orleans adopted a new building code in 2016, and new residential, commercial, and industrial structures constructed since then have been built to a higher standard, which should contribute to increased resilience. Because of the implementation of stronger building standards, even though the population of the city has increased since the last update of this HMP, the overall vulnerability of the community to natural hazards has been reduced.

The Gentilly Resilience District is a combination of efforts across the Gentilly neighborhood that are funded by a $141 million grant from the National Disaster Resilience Competition. There are a number of projects completed and underway that seek to address urban water management via rain gardens, stormwater infrastructure, and the creation of blue & green corridors throughout the district. The Gentilly Resilience District is envisioned as a model for how other neighborhoods in New Orleans and across the country can adapt to a changing environment.

The New Orleans Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance identifies future land use zones (Figure 5). The map reflects the land uses that correspond to the long-term vision, goals, and policies expressed in the Master Plan. It constitutes the most direct link between the Master Plan and the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. This information is useful as we consider how the City's landscape might change in the near future.

The change in housing units has not been as dramatic as population shifts from 2000 to the present. In 2018 New Orleans had an estimated 191,620 housing units, approximately 89 percent of pre-Katrina figures. After a decline of 11.7 percent in housing units from 2000 to 2010, the number of units is slowly increasing. From 2010 to 2018, the number of housing units in New Orleans increased by just under 1 percent (Table 3).

Population

Similar to many urban centers across the country, New Orleans experienced a slow decline in population beginning in 1960.  Although New Orleans lost over 130,000 people between 1960 and 1990, the decline was not as pronounced as in other U.S. cities (e.g., Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis) whose local economies were tied closely to manufacturing.  During the 1980s, New Orleans experienced a sharper decline in population as a result of the slowdown in the oil industry.  Between 1960 and 1990, the population of New Orleans decreased by 21 percent (from 627,625 in 1960 to 496,938 in 1990). In the period from the 1990s through mid-2005, prior to Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’s population began to stabilize.[5]  In July 2005, New Orleans had an estimated population of 455,188.  In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded the City of New Orleans, and nearly 100% of the population was temporarily displaced. As a result, population figures dropped to approximately 208,000 people in 2006. As the city continued to recover, the population reached over 340,000 in 2010. The population continued to increase at a rate of 13.7% between 2010 and July 2018.

Figure 7 shows the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) composite score, which takes into account 15 variables from the U.S. Census, including Socioeconomic Status, Household Composition, Race/Ethnicity/Language, and Housing/Transportation. The index uses this data to predict how vulnerable people are throughout the neighborhoods and census tracts. This information can be used to help identify the people and places in New Orleans with the highest vulnerability to disasters and to inform the way the City mitigates disasters and promotes resilience.

Table 5 indicates the distribution of residents by age cohorts.  More than 20% of Orleans Parish’s population is under the age of 18.  The city’s elderly population has increased by more than 2% since the last HMP update from 11.2% to 13.5%. This is exceptionally relevant to hazard mitigation, as the elderly population may be at greater risk from specific hazards.  For a more elaborate discussion of this vulnerability, please see Section Two: Risk Assessment.

The following table highlights specific populations that may be more at risk of hazardous events than others.  Householders living alone can be more vulnerable to hazards due to a lack of resources or support networks that can provide information and additional resources. This can be especially true for householders over the age of 65 and veterans, who are more likely to have a disability than the general population and may need additional assistance accessing information and assistance.[6] For example, over 16,000 or approximately 11 percent of all householders are 65 and living alone.  Veterans make up a similar proportion of all householders with 16,364 households. These statistics reflect the large proportion of households that may be categorized as a vulnerable population that may need additional support to increase access to information, which could be resolved by increasing access to technology.

The following table highlights ethnic cohorts in the city.  Race and ethnicity correlate with social vulnerability.[7]  This vulnerability translates to a lack of access to resources, cultural differences, and the social, economic, and political marginalization associated with these disparities.  Language and cultural barriers can also affect access to post-disaster funding in high-hazard residential locations.

Homelessness and housing insecurity increase vulnerability and exposure to environmental hazards, such as extreme temperatures. New Orleans Health Department conducts outreach to the homeless community and tracks the estimated homeless population, as demonstrated in Figure 8.

The annual total homeless encampment population in New Orleans has risen slightly in recent years. In 2018, the highest numbers were in the winter months (Nov, Dec, Jan) and in July, when the weather is most extreme. There is a growing need for warming/cooling shelters during different seasons throughout the year.

Economy

Since World War II, New Orleans’ economy has mainly been based on trade, energy, tourism, and to a lesser extent, industry, and manufacturing. The New Orleans economy remained  strong until the 1980s with the decline in the oil sector. Since the 1980s, the New Orleans economy has relied more heavily on trade and tourism.

The New Orleans economy continues to be dominated by four major sectors: Health Care and Social Assistance; Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services; Accommodation and Food Services; and Educational Services. Today, New Orleans is still home to one of the major U.S. ports and an extensive network of ground transportation routes in and out of the city.  Some of the major imports that pass through New Orleans include steel, coffee, sugar, bananas, and bauxite.  Exports include oil, petroleum products, grains, and textiles. Along with this established focus on both national and international commerce, Orleans Parish boasts an ever-growing industrial sector, including major contributors in the energy and advanced manufacturing industries.  While businesses such as port operations and tourism are major economic drivers in the parish, according to the Small Business Administration, statistics for the New Orleans area show that small businesses create more than 75% of new jobs. The presence of big business together with small business adds to a diversified economic base throughout the parish.

New Orleans is an emerging technological and digital media market.  According to a 2018 report published by market analytics firm Emsi, New Orleans is listed as one of the top 12 leading cities for high technology jobs in North America.  A separate report published by Business Analytics listed New Orleans number four on a list of the top 12 technology hubs in North America. A number of new or established tech companies are located in New Orleans, such as GE Digital, DXC Technology, inXile Entertainment, Accurent, and High Voltage Software.  The city’s business patterns and workforce distribution by sector are further detailed in table 8.

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