Despite feeling “abandoned” by the rest of the country, survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans are surprisingly optimistic three years after the natural disaster, a survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation reveals.

The survey was conducted between March 5 to April 28 on a sample of 1,294 adults living in Orleans Parish. The participants were interviewed either by telephone or over the Internet or face-to-face.

One of the major problems these people still face is having medical problems. About 84 percent of the respondents said they still face health problems, whether physical, mental, health care coverage or problems with a child’s health.

On the other hand, three-fourth of the respondents said they remain optimistic about the future even though most believe that both the White House and the American public have largely forgotten them (65 percent). However, 52 percent of the residents in New Orleans are “dissatisfied” with the progress in rebuilding neighborhoods destroyed by the storm, while 11 percent are “angry.”

The survey also found: 72 percent of the respondents said federal recovery money has been “mostly misspent;” 59 percent feel that there has been little or no progress in making facilities and services more available; 86 percent said New Orleans had at least a "somewhat serious" problem with political corruption, and 58 percent considered it "very serious;" 65 percent reported some sort of chronic condition or disability, or being in at best fair health, up from 45 percent in 2006; 60 percent of the people living in New Orleans feel that rebuilding the city is not a priority for Congress, or the president.

Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States crashing the region and the lives of a huge number of people. With more than 1800 people reported dead and more than $81 billion in damage, specialists wondered whether or not the region would ever recover. Tens of thousands of people lost not only their homes but their entire community as well.