Demographics of Katrina Destruction

[LadyEagle]

Katrina's Ground Zero victims unlike rest of America, Census analysis shows

By Frank Bass
ASSOCIATED PRESS

11:27 a.m. September 4, 2005

People living in the path of Hurricane Katrina's worst devastation were twice as likely as most Americans to be poor and without a car – factors that may help explain why so many failed to evacuate as the storm approached.

An Associated Press analysis of Census data shows that the residents in the three dozen hardest-hit neighborhoods in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama also were disproportionately minority and had incomes $10,000 below the national average.

"Let them know we're not bums. We have houses. Our houses were destroyed. We have jobs. It's not our fault that we didn't have cars to leave," Shatonia Thomas, 27, said as she walked near New Orleans' convention center five days after the storm, still trapped in the destruction with her children, ages 6 and 9.

Money and transportation – two keys to surviving a natural disaster – were inaccessible for many who got left behind in the Gulf region's worst squalor.

"It's a different equation for poor people," explained Dan Carter, a University of South Carolina historian. "There's a certain ease of transportation and funds that the middle class in this country takes for granted."

Catina Miller, a 32-year-old grocery deli worker who lived in the Ninth Ward, a poverty-stricken New Orleans enclave created in the 1870s by immigrants who were too poor to find higher ground, said she certainly would have liked to have left the city before the hurricane hit.

"But where can you go if you don't have a car?" she asked. "Not everyone can just pick up and take off."

Source

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

From all repsrts I heard buses went all through NOLA Saturday and Sunday offering free rides out of the city.

 

[Grimlock Prime]

There were live news feeds from NO the day before with people happily gambling & drinking & partying. One broadcast on Fox News had the anchor cussed out for asking "what are you still doing here?" Clearly there were lots of people who didn't have a chance to leave, but there were A LOT of people who choose to stay. They're probably the ones screaming the loudest now.

 

[Pipedude]

I saw an article mentioning a tourist couple who were sitting on a curb in the French Quarter, intending to ride the storm out, The woman was wearing "a lewd t-shirt" and quipped "I just don't wanna die in this shirt!"

(Disclaimer: I tell this from memory; errors inevitable.)

 

[El_Guero]

Something is fishy about that news report ...

2001 Average Pay 36k
Present Median Pay (from memory) 48k

2003 poverty level 9k [single] (12 k if married)
2003 poverty level (family of 7) 26k

Web pages:

Average Pay web page

Poverty web page

 

[LadyEagle]

Whatever. I know plenty of people who do not make the "average" pay of 36K and they do not live in New Orleans. I know elderly people who subsist on $500.00 a month which barely pays for their medications and they would not be able to live unless they had relatives supplying food, shelter, and transportation for them.

Also, you must take into account that "average" is just that - average. If, on a state by state basis, I've no doubt the average income for Texas would far exceed that of Mississippi.

 

[JGrubbs]

Originally posted by C4K:
From all repsrts I heard buses went all through NOLA Saturday and Sunday offering free rides out of the city.

Were they offering rides out of the city or rides to the Superdome? I saw them before the storm hit going to all the parts of town and bussing people to the Superdome, which is why all the busses were outside the Superdome after the flooding under water.

Those that were driving out of the city were taking four hours to go 30 miles!

 

[JGrubbs]

Originally posted by El_Guero:
Something is fishy about that news report ...

2001 Average Pay 36k
Present Median Pay (from memory) 48k

2003 poverty level 9k [single] (12 k if married)
2003 poverty level (family of 7) 26k

I has content no knowing that I made less than the present median pay, now you have to go and tell me I'm below average!

I remember when one of the storms hit Florida last year, we didn't have the money for gas even if we wanted to evacuate, we just had to do our best to hunker down. We didn't get any major damage, just had to throw out some food from the fridge from the power outage.

While there were some people that chose to stay in NOLA, I am sure there were many more who couldn't leave but instead went to the Superdome and the Convention Center like they were told to by the local authorities.

 

[Filmproducer]

Originally posted by El_Guero:
Something is fishy about that news report ...

2001 Average Pay 36k
Present Median Pay (from memory) 48k

2003 poverty level 9k [single] (12 k if married)
2003 poverty level (family of 7) 26k

Web pages:

Average Pay web page

Poverty web page

You can find the census bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates at the following link. They are based on the 2002 census and they break down the poverty level by county, (or parrish in LA). Based on this data the report would be correct in assuming that the areas hit had high levels of people below the poverty line.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe/county.html