It was dropping before Katrina, but it dropped off a cliff after. It’s hard to rebuild when you’re missing 29% of the recent population.

Figures released this week show that there are 343,839 residents of New Orleans, down 29% from the previous count of 485,000 in 2000. The current population is also substantially depleted from the 455,000 people believed to have been living in the city just before hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.

The powerful storm overpowered the city’s levees and caused flooding that forced about 200,000 residents to flee.

Families relocated to makeshift camps elsewhere in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. No one knows what has happened to those people — the census records current location but does not show the movement of individuals between counts — but it is evident that many have never returned.