Population Exposure to Natural Disasters

Introduction

This page provides data and maps showing the pre-disaster characteristics of the populations that appear to have been most directly affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

CIESIN has used Census 2000 block geography and Summary File 1 attribute data to generate raster surfaces of 24 demographic variables for the states most affected by Katrina and Rita (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) at a resolution of 30 arc-seconds. Detailed grids of the same variables are available for the New Orleans and Houston metropolitan statistical areas at a resolution of 7.5 arc-seconds.

CIESIN has also used Census 2000 block group geography and Summary File 3 attribute data to generate raster surfaces of 16 additional demographic variables for Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi at a resolution of 30 arc-seconds. These additional variables include income, poverty status, education, and housing age.  Detailed grids of the same variables are available for the New Orleans metropolitan statistical areas at a resolution of 7.5 arc-seconds.

These grids are preliminary [alpha version] data. Please notify us if you find any errors or omissions.