NYT: Reports Reveal Katrina's Impact on Population

Reports Reveal Katrina's Impact on Population
By RICK LYMAN
Published: June 7, 2006

After the twin barrages of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year, the City of New Orleans emerged nearly 64 percent smaller, having lost an estimated 278,833 residents, according to the Census Bureau's first study of the area since the storms.

Those who remained in the city were significantly more likely to be white, slightly older and a bit more well-off, the bureau concluded in two reports that were its first effort to measure the social, financial and demographic impact of the hurricanes on the Gulf Coast.

The bureau found that while New Orleans lost about two-thirds of its population, adjacent St. Bernard Parish dropped a full 95 percent, falling to just 3,361 residents by Jan. 1. The surveys do not include the influx in both areas that has occurred this year as more residents begin to rebuild.

While the New Orleans area lost population, the Houston metropolitan area emerged with more than 130,000 new residents, many of them hurricane evacuees. Whites made up a slightly smaller percentage of Houston's population — 62.8 percent of the city in January compared with 64.8 percent last July, a month before Hurricane Katrina hit....

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The physical impact of the hurricanes is well documented. Now, with these reports, bureau officials said they hoped to begin drawing into sharper focus the human landscape, showing in stark statistics how the storm's impact was felt most keenly by the poor, members of minorities and renters....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/us/nationalspecial/07census.html?hp&ex=1149739200&en=759109971e0cbcde&ei=5094&partner=homepage

my one comment is that I think there may be about 130,000 more residents in Houston, voting Dem next time.

instead of ... dem.

Already a blue piece of Texas.

that the large chuck of these 278,833 are probably minorites and more likely to vote democratic.

Here's the thing, Louisiana is a bit of a "purple" state that has both parties with several major statewide offices including a split on their senators.

By dispersing the population that's 278,833 people who are now living in other states and probably not really setup properly to vote again in the next election let alone being able to vote in Louisiana.

Folks - we just watched the reddening of a state. Hell this was easier than having someone like Katherine Harris do a mass purge on the voter rolls and removing people who have similiar SSN or name spells or minor traffic tickets just to get the count they need.

Shameful!

People who relocated temporarily, had kids in school, school will be out soon so some will be coming back to see what they can do for recovering their homes, neighborhoods, towns, cities. It will be interesting to see the numbers by the end of summer, of people returning for the summer.