Posted on 12/15/2006 12:54:29 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW ORLEANS - It wasn't the flooding that drove Dr. David Jones out of New Orleans for good. His house in the Lakeview neighborhood stayed dry. Instead, it was the way Hurricane Katrina eroded the orthopedic surgeon's practice.
With fewer patients to treat and no patience for the sluggish pace of the city's recovery, he moved his family and practice to Raleigh, N.C., in July.
"I love New Orleans and always will," said Jones, 39, who now works at a hospital affiliated with Duke University. "I could have made a go of it there, but it would have been slow and arduous."
New Orleans is losing an alarming number of young professionals in Katrina's aftermath. Many doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers and other highly educated people are gone. Some left during the storm and never came back. Others came back, but soon gave up and moved out altogether.
Whether a full-blown brain drain is under way is unclear. But some suspect so, and fear the exodus will only get worse.
"They don't see the career opportunities here that they see elsewhere," said University of New Orleans political science professor Susan Howell.
For many professionals trying to make a living here, the number of patients and clients has dropped off drastically. Less than half New Orleans' pre-Katrina population of 455,000 has returned.
A recent survey by the University of New Orleans suggests the loss of the region's best educated, most talented and highly trained workers could worsen. One-third of residents surveyed in October said they are likely to leave within two years, and those with postgraduate degrees were even more likely to consider leaving.
Health care has been especially hard-hit. Thousands of doctors, nurses and medical technicians were evacuated after Katrina in August 2005. Sixteen months later, only five of 11 hospitals are open, just one at full capacity.
According to another UNO survey, the city has regained less than 60 percent of its non-hospital physicians and its private education jobs. A similar percentage of professional, scientific and technical workers, including lawyers, engineers and architects, had yet to return more than a year after the storm, the survey found.
One who came back but plans to leave again is Jennifer Lange. Lange, 33, was president of the Young Leadership Council, an organization of young professionals, when Katrina hit. A marketing manager for Isidore Newman School — whose graduates include the NFL's Manning brothers — she evacuated to Houston, then came back a few months later.
But her job was one of about 90 eliminated by the private school, and she found herself working at a lower salary for an insurance and benefits company.
Now, she plans to move back to Houston, where she and her fiance, financial planner Thomas Brandino.
"I never wanted to leave," she said, "but he looked around and couldn't find a job here." Still, Lange is optimistic: "We'll be back one day. He's promised me."
William Frey, a University of Michigan demographer who has studied post-Katrina population trends, said young people with professional opportunities are the most likely to leave.
"The long-run trend has been a substantial brain drain from the metropolitan area," said Frey, who added that he expects more young professionals to leave.
Louisiana State University economics professor James Richardson said he has yet to see "irrefutable evidence of a brain drain."
But Katrina has made recruiting a challenge for Entergy Corp., the utility company whose New Orleans division declared bankruptcy after Katrina destroyed much of its electric and natural gas systems. Robert Spencer, an Entergy human resources director, said the company has 400 openings, mostly for accountants and engineers.
"We're not getting enough people knocking on our door as we were pre-Katrina," Spencer said. "The moment they find out we are headquartered in New Orleans, they think back to some of the scenes of what they saw on TV and they don't give us any kind of consideration."
Tulane University has a similar problem. About 40 of 400 tenure-track faculty members left after Katrina. Provost Paul Barron said he probably will not know until spring how many faculty members will return for the 2007-08 academic year.
"There is probably a large number of people who are thinking about leaving," he said. "It's still not the easiest city in the world to live in."
Jones, the doctor who moved to Raleigh, said a lack of recovery planning by government officials may be causing white-collar workers to move on.
"It seems they were more interested in getting tourists back than helping residents return," he said. "They had a real chance to change things, but they blew it."
So much for the "choclate city".
;) I haven't updated my page for a while. I've been accepted to West Point, along with three congressional nominations.
I'll take your word for it. I'm kinda out of college politics as it were.
What exactly sucked about senior year? The Katrina aftermath?
WOW!!!! Congrats!!!! Keep me posted! ;)
I know- I never thought it would happen. R day is June 25th- better than Christmas, in my book. It does make high school all the more frustrating though; if I could, I would be there tomorrow.
I have a cold, if I laugh too hard, I will choke. This liberal utopia doe not need brains. The Democrats are in control. The city has thrived on morons many years!
Sounds like an opportunity to me. If I were younger, and looking for a modern-day adventure, NOLA, may fit the bill.
I grew up in NO in the late 60's early 70s. It was a Tom Sawyer life for a boy if there ever was one and there is no way I'd trade those memories. Sad to know that lifestyle is gone forever.
Keep up the great work!!! :)))
1. Had to take first semester at a different school. Couldn’t get his required courses, and didn’t graduate in May. Had to take a summer program back at Tulane, and they charged him an extra $15,000 or so for the one month ‘ semester’
2. The devastation in NO is worse than you see on TV. So much of what made NO a great place to visit are gone.
The same thing applies to Massachusetts, where a majority of the voters keep re-electing Hanoi Kerry and Chappaquiddick Kennedy, and New York, where they love the carpetbagger from Arkansas and The Schmuck, and California, where they keep re-electing Boxer and Feinstein, and Maine, where they keep re-electing the twin RINOs, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
Ignorant voters elect demagogues.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.