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Abstract
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Hurricane Katrina will forever be one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history. In addition to the extremely high death toll (it was the third deadliest storm since 1900), Katrina displaced hundreds of thousands of individuals. Current estimates suggest that total damage will exceed $75 billion, making it the costliest hurricane, indeed disaster, in U.S. history.
The nation’s focus early in the recovery was on urban areas, especially New Orleans— understandable given that the vast majority of deaths occurred in such localities. Rural areas, in contrast, received far less notice. Yet rural areas, because of their unique characteristics, are often more at risk in disasters, and socially vulnerable populations all too often lose out in long-term recovery programs. Further, the rural South has a large African American population, and race often compounds vulnerability.
This brief shows how the characteristics of rural Gulf Coast families place them at higher risks during natural disasters and make them far less able to recover from calamities. Non-metro residents represented the majority (55 percent) of the population affected by Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi. They also constituted 17% of the people living in Alabama’s disaster-stricken area, and about 12% of the affected population in Louisiana. These are not inconsequential numbers; they represent thousands of inhabitants living in small communities dotting the tri-state region. |