Study: Katrina Displaced More People Than Previously Thought

[babylonsister]

Survey shows shift in post-Katrina population
Posted by Capital bureau August 07, 2007 9:21PM

By Bill Barrow
Capital Bureau

BATON ROUGE -- A new post-storm migration analysis by the Louisiana Recovery Authority reaffirms some indelible images from August and September 2005 -- buses bound for Houston, airplanes bound for anywhere -- with its conclusion that New Orleans residents are the most likely of all storm victims to have settled the farthest from home or out of state.

The migration report, which tracks population shifts through July 1, 2006, represents the most detailed look to date at the population shifts within Louisiana, numbers that flesh out anecdotal tales of growth and loss around the state since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Its authors cautioned Tuesday that the study is merely a snapshot of a fluid situation. But they also touted the analysis as instructive of the particular challenges facing communities aiming to bring back scattered residents or trying to manage an unexpected influx of people.

Separately, Louisiana State University researchers released a review that found severe emotional distress and depression among residents in FEMA trailer communities, a result the professors attributed not only to the trauma of displacement but also to the specific circumstances of park life.

Among the findings of the migration report:
--New Orleans lost more than 163,000 people -- at least 150,000 of them directly related to the storm, according to the analysis -- to areas outside the storm zone or the Baton Rouge area. Most of those have settled out of state. Of those who remained closer to home, Jefferson Parish was destination for more than 45,000 people, while the four-parish area in and around Baton Rouge accepted 23,200. Almost 9,300 ended up in the north shore parishes of St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington.

-- At 18,296, St. Bernard Parish is the single largest contributor to population gains on the north shore, almost doubling the estimated 9,300 New Orleanians who have landed in those parishes. That means that between one-quarter and one-third of St. Bernard's pre-storm population shifted to the north shore. In St. Tammany, meanwhile, a net gain in population has obscured an outmigration of about 20,000 residents, an estimated 15,000 of whom moved as a direct result of Katrina.
--Jefferson Parish suffered a net population loss of about 22,000, but its hurricane-related displacement number is actually much greater, at about 70,000, offset by an influx of more than 50,000 storm victims from other parishes. Most of the Jefferson departures landed outside south Louisiana, including an estimated tens of thousands outside the state. Measuring Jefferson and St. Charles together, the two parishes have taken in more than 46,000 Orleans residents exiled by Katrina.

more...

http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/08/survey_shows_shift_in_postkatr.html

[rudy23]

1. People are living through hell to be pawns in politicians & developers game

Not just poor people, either.

[EFerrari]

3. My mother is a developer and I was so proud of her

because instead of positioning her company to gain from that tragedy, she donated to housing activists that were organizing in the 9th Ward.

[rudy23]

4. God bless her. Tell her that that kind of generosity is contagious.

...and desperately needed down here.

[EFerrari]

5. We all have to keep doing everything we can.

:hug:

[Kurovski]

2. K&R. (nt)

[intheflow]

6. One of the things that most disturbed me about the New Orleans evacuations

is that no government agency--city, state, or federal--kept track of how many people they were moving, and where they were moving them to. I'd believe that the numbers of displaced/relocated people are even higher than this figure suggests--particularly if you factor in the number of undocumented immigrants that had lived in the city.

Thanks for posting, babylonsister. K&R. :kick: