Culture of New Orleans Bureau of Justice Statistics from FBI Uniform Crime Reports, NOLA.com, and criminologist Dr.Peter Scharf { After Hurricane Katrina (2005), news media attention focused on the reduced violent-crime rate following the exodus of many New Orleanians. That trend began to reverse itself as people returned to the city, although calculating the homicide rate remained difficult when no authoritative source could cite a total population figure. In 2003, most victims in New Orleans were killed within three months of their last arrest. The homicide rate for the New Orleans metropolitan statistical area, which includes the suburbs, was 24.4 per 100,000 in 2002.
Effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans news networks citing blogs like Interdictor and Gulfsails for reports of what was happening in the city. Amateur radio provided tactical and emergency communications and handled health-and-welfare enquiries. By September 4, a temporary communications hub was set up at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown New Orleans. The first television pictures out of New Orleans shown on national TV were from Houston's ABC owned and operated KTRK which flew its helicopter to New Orleans in the days after the storm. Most of the city's major roads were damaged. The only route out of the city was east to the east bank