The New York Times ran an article on Sunday (8/31/2008) on the recovery of New Orleans after Katrina. The article contained some interesting facts: for example, before Katrina, New Orleans had 368 public transportation busses but now it only has 76 public transportation busses >:( which is a 79% decrease in the number of busses, although more than 2/3rds of the population (72%) has returned to New Orleans. Clearly the people who returned to the city are either not transit dependent or the city simply doesn't care.
That stat doesn't seem entirely right to me. New Orleans has cut and modified service because the population is smaller, and they ordered 35 foot buses to replace 40 foot buses, but I don't think the RTA's fleet is now down to 76 buses. I think that it is about 25% less than what it was, closer to 300 buses, would make more sense.
The Times story may be correct - the 2006 NORTA profile (http://www.ntdprogram.gov/ntdprogram/pubs/profiles/2006/agency_profiles/6032.pdf) at the National Transit Database lists only 74 buses, 19 paratransit vehicles and 7 light rail vehicles in the fleet.