Poll: Katrina fallout still felt

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A poll ahead of next week's anniversary of Hurricane Katrina found 16 percent of affected people surveyed say their lives are back to normal.

The USA Today/Gallup Poll, which included phone interviews with 602 adults from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama between Aug. 3 and 17, also found that 56 percent of polled parents said their children have been affected in negative ways, the newspaper said.

Of those surveyed, 63 percent of people in affected areas were living in the same home as before the storm, compared to 55 percent last fall. However, 60 percent reported they were working the same job, down from 61 percent in the fall poll.

Half of the respondents who have not yet returned to their pre-Katrina homes said they probably will not, and about one-third of people who have returned to their homes said they may move out of the area.

Gallup Poll Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport said most people in the affected areas say their communities need money and construction.

"It's practical, not psychological," he said. "What people want is money and contractors."