Oil industry impact in Gulf 'expected to be worse than Hurricane Katrina'

The impact of the oil industry on the Gulf of Mexico due to the leaking MC252 well is expected by some to be worse than the outcomes of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Figures from the Kaiser Family Foundation suggest that almost half of New Orleans residents (49 per cent) anticipate that the city will suffer worse due to the oil industry's activities than it did at the hands of the natural disaster.

A smaller proportion - 40 per cent - voted for the opposing proposition that Hurricane Katrina was the more damaging of the two events.

"The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the largest offshore spill in US history, amounts to a new, man-made disaster for greater New Orleans," the research foundation comments.

Following the spill, 84 per cent of residents of New Orleans now have a negative outlook on BP, the company that operated the failed Deepwater Horizon rig which led to the leak.