6-month post-Katrina statistics

At the six-month point in the storm recovery process in Biloxi, here were the available numbers:

• 3,167 – number of students in Biloxi public schools when classes resumed Sept. 26 (compared to 6,125 enrolled pre-storm). Five months after the storm, enrollment was at 4,321.
• $54,795 – amount of gaming tax city would be collecting per day if casinos were operating ($20 million a year; 35 percent of city’s annual operating revenue)
• $92,000 – amount city agreed to pay in July 2005 for a $10
  million business interruption insurance policy in the
  event casinos were shut down by a storm
• $500,000 – amount of gaming tax state lost each day Biloxi casinos after Katrina.
• More than 2.08 million cubic yards – amount of storm debris that had been removed from city streets and public rights-of-way since the storm. This amount of debris would cover a football field with and stand more than 97 stories high. City leaders estimate that about 75 percent of the debris had been removed six months after the storm.

• More than 5,000 – total number of building and repair permits the city had issued five months after the storm.
• $50 million – initial estimate on cost of removing debris from city rights of way (number will increase with removal of debris from private property, which is in the offing)
• 52 – Number of confirmed storm fatalities in Biloxi, as reported Jan. 31 by Harrison County Gary T. Hargrove. Of the 53 confirmed fatalities in Biloxi, a figure that includes one unidentified male, Hargrove said the average age was 58, with youngest being 22 and oldest, 90; and 14 were females and 39 were males.
• Sale taxes generated in Dec '04: $1.169 million
• Sale taxes generated in Dec. '05: $948,122