Number: RL33141
Title: Hurricane Katrina: Social-Demographic Characteristics of Impacted Areas
Authors: Thomas Gabe, Gene Falk, and Maggie McCarty, Domestic Social Policy Division; and Virginia W. Mason, Congressional Cartography Program 
Abstract: On the morning of August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast between the major cities of New Orleans, Louisiana, to the west, and Mobile, Alabama, to the east. Along the Gulf Coast and inland in the swath of the storm, Hurricane Katrina impacted hundreds of thousands of families in three states (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama) and contributed to the deaths of more than 1,000 people. While CRS estimates that 5.8 million people in three states may have experienced hurricane-force winds, the majority rode out the storm safely. The geographic range of Katrina's hurricane-force winds corresponds quite closely with the 88 counties declared as disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). (See Figure 1, depicting Hurricane Katrina's storm track, estimated extent of hurricane and tropical force winds, counties designated FEMA disaster areas, and county population density.) Property damage, loss of life, and sizeable displacement of population appear to have been largely concentrated within a 100-mile radius of where the storm made landfall. Within this area, damage due to high winds and storm surge resulted in significant devastation, but flooding, largely resulting from breached levees and flood walls, affected the greatest number of people, with much of New Orleans flooded.
Pages: 30
Date: November 4, 2005