New Orleans, which was hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has lost more than 75,000 homes, nearly 13% of the total housing units in the district. At the same time, the monthly cost of housing rose 33% to $882 due to shortage of these houses making it expensive to live.

In a study released on Tuesday, the US department of housing and urban development on its website said that more than 80% of New Orleans households were forced to move because of Hurricane Katrina. Nearly 300,000 families were forced from their homes in the first two weeks of the storm.

Hurricane Katrina, which hit the US Gulf coast in August of 2005, became the costliest natural disaster in the United States. More than 1800 people lost their lives and the entire New Orleans was submerged, with total property damage of nearly $100 billion. Hurricane Katrina also exposed the dark side of the US, where the entire civic administration failed to battle the storm, which is rated among the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the US.

This survey presents a startling picture of just how disruptive Hurricane Katrina was to the lives of tens of thousands of families throughout the New Orleans area, said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan on the website.