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Black Businesses Suffer post-Katrina

One of the biggest casualties of Hurricane Katrina has been black business. Approximately 60,000 black-owned companies along the ravaged Gulf Coast had been devastated by the hurricane. In the state of Mississippi, nearly 2,000 black-owned businesses creating sales and receipts of $126-million were severely affected.

Unanswered questions remain regarding the fate of black business in the hurricane-affected region. But, many in the black community feel without significant representation in the rebuilding process these businesses and the jobs they create will be swept away.

"The impact on black businesses in the gulf region will be "dire," says Eugene Cornelius Jr., district director for Louisiana Office, U.S. Small Business Administration. The immediate effects are obvious: the instant devastation of businesses the hurricanes brought and the complete loss of markets in the subsequent aftermath.