Hurricane Katrina 10th Anniversary: Aug. 29, 2015

Hurricane Katrina is the costliest U.S. hurricane on record, and the deadliest to strike our nation since 1928. After initially making U.S. landfall on Aug. 25, 2005, in South Florida as a Category 1, it moved into the Gulf of Mexico, rapidly intensified into a Category 5 and made its second landfall early the morning of Aug. 29 in Plaquemines Parish in Southeast Louisiana as a strong Category 3 with sustained winds of 125 mph. After briefly moving over water, it made a third landfall later that morning near the Louisiana-Mississippi border. Katrina weakened as it moved north-northeastward over land but remained a hurricane as far inland as the vicinity of Meridian, Miss., a straight distance of more than 130 miles from the coast. 

Ultimately, Katrina was responsible for 1,833 deaths and damage estimated at $151 billion, including $75 billion in the New Orleans area and along the Mississippi coast. Federal disaster declarations issued in the hurricane’s wake covered not only all of the coastal counties of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, but extended well inland to include cities such as Baton Rouge, La.; Jackson, Miss.; and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The "Turn Around, Don’t Drown" rule of flood waters

With storms continuing to pound the East Coast and other parts of the country, the dangers of driving and walking through flood waters can’t be ignored. Six inches of fast-moving water can knock over an adult, while 12 inches can carry away a small car. Follow the Turn Around, Don’t Drown rule of flood waters. It’s advice to live by.

And learn more about your risk of flooding, the most common natural disaster in the United States.

Also:
 If you live in an area prone to hurricanes or tropical storms, emergency preparation is key. Even areas well away from the coastline can be threatened by flooding, high winds, and even tornadoes.

Be prepared for severe storms:

• Check for alerts at the National Hurricane Center and your local weather at weather.gov.
• Know your risk if you live in an evacuation zone and check your local weather channels regularly for updates.
• Know where to go if you're area is designated for evacuation.
• Develop a plan that identifies all of the steps that as a family you need to take before, during, and after a disaster to ensure maximum personal safety and property protection (Download NOAA’s Weather Safety: Hurricanes publication (PDF). 

Tornado Tracks: 56 years of tornado tracks by F-scale

Got this data from NOAA via the spectacular Data.gov. It tracks 56 years of tornado paths along with a host of attribute information. Here, the tracks are categorized by their F-Scale (which isn't the latest and greatest means but good enough for a hack like me), where brighter strokes represent more violent storms.

Also: earthquakes since 1898, major fires since 2001, and hurricanes since 1851.

Like a Hurricane

Hurricane Irene is churning in the Atlantic, and if you live in a hurricane-prone part of the United States, it's time to prepare for severe storms.

USA.gov has the information you need to prepare your family, your business, and your pets. Don't let a disaster catch you by surprise - be prepared.

Census Bureau Launches New Tool for Hurricane Planning

The U.S. Census Bureau, in cooperation with the National Weather Service, announces the launch of OnTheMap for Emergency Management: Hurricanes, a Web-based tool that provides real-time workforce information when a hurricane strikes land in the United States.

http://lehdmap4.did.census.gov/themap4/em/index.html OnTheMap for Emergency Management: Hurricanes is an easy-to-use tool that provides a live feed from the National Hurricane Center. When a storm’s leading winds make landfall, the application will allow users to view the characteristics of the local workforce, such as the affected industries, the ages of workers and workers’ earnings with a simple click of the link.

“OnTheMap technology has been providing useful data for emergency preparedness for some time, but this new tool doesn’t require any specialized training,” said Jeremy Wu, chief of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Local Employment Dynamics Partnership. “It puts valuable information directly into the hands of emergency planners and local officials.”

OnTheMap for Emergency Management: Hurricanes provides users with:

• Access to the most recent workforce data for the area impacted by a hurricane.
• An easy-to-use, Web-based interface for visualizing hurricanes and jobs data, including historical results and downloadable reports.
• The most recent storm location information as provided by a direct link to the National Hurricane Center.

OnTheMap for Emergency Management: Hurricanes, is a product of OnTheMap, an online mapping and reporting application that shows the relationship between where people work and where they live, as well as the characteristics of the workforce. It allows users to create, print and download workforce related maps, profiles and underlying data down to the block level.

OnTheMap comes from the Census Bureau’s Local Employment Dynamics Partnership.

Forecast of Atlantic Seasonal Hurricane Activity for 2009 (PDF; 878 KB)

The Tropical Meteorology Project, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University (Dr. William Gray) foresees average activity for the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season. "We have decreased our seasonal forecast from our initial early December prediction. We anticipate an average probability of United States major hurricane landfall."

You are Like a Hurricane

An online tool, Historical Hurricane Tracks, helps users get a quick picture of coastal areas with the greatest frequency of hurricanes and tropical storms -- and that historical "snapshot" can help community members and local emergency managers develop better plans for storm preparation and recovery.

NOAA Tracking Site Looks At Historical Hurricane Activity.

Recovering from the 2005 hurricanes

The recovery process in communities damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 has begun accelerating while local officials who once talked optimistically of rapid rebuilding now talk of 10-year timeframes for recovery, according to the latest GulfGov report issued by the Rockefeller Institute of Government in New York and the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana. This latest report, the sixth, will be followed by a book that will examine overall lessons learned in the wake of the catastrophes. The joint effort was aided by a grant from the Ford Foundation.

Southern California fire data

The Census Bureau has a Data and Emergency Preparedness section with Preparing for Emergencies Using Census Data, plus information about the October 2007 fires and the migration patterns in the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Census in Schools Educator Update, June 2007

From our friends at the Census Bureau:

Welcome to the Census in Schools Educator Update - providing you with the latest news from the U.S. Census Bureau. In This Issue:

1. Minority Population Tops 100 Million
2. Hurricane Season and Census Facts
3. Hurricane Data and Emergency Preparedness
4. Historical Data and Coastal Area Teaching Suggestion
5. Facts for Features
6. Contact Us

1. Minority Population Tops 100 Million
The nation’s minority population reached 100.7 million on July 1, 2006,according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates by race, Hispanic origin, sex, and age. California had a minority population of 20.7 million on July 1, 2006, 21 percent of the nation’s total; while Texas had a minority population of 12.2 million, 12 percent of the total. For a historical perspective, the total U.S. population reached 100 million in 1915. Last October, the Census Bureau reported that the overall population had topped 300 million.

Other highlights include:

Hispanic
The Hispanic population has remained the largest minority group with 44.3 million people. Hispanics accounted for almost half (1.4 million) of the national population growth of 2.9 million between July 2005 and July 2006.
Black
The second largest minority group is the black population at 40.2 million,achieving an increase of 1.3 percent, or 522,000 people, between 2005 and 2006.
Asian
The Asian population saw an increase to 14.9 million. After Hispanics,Asians are the second fastest growing minority population, with a 3.2 percent increase between 2005 and 2006.
American Indian and Alaska Native
The American Indian and Alaska Native population rose by 1 percent to 4.5 million from 2005.
Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander The Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander population hit the one million mark in 2006, with a 1.7 percent increase since 2005.

For more information, visit here.

2. Hurricane Season and Census Facts

The north Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 and lasts through November. The U.S. Census Bureau produces timely local data that are critical to emergency planning, preparedness, and recovery efforts. The following facts spotlight the number of people living in areas that could be most affected by these acts of nature.

In Harm’s Way

34.9 million - Estimated July 1, 2006, population most threatened by Atlantic hurricanes: the coastal portion of the states stretching from North Carolina to Texas. Twelve percent of the nation’s population lived in these areas.
24.8 million - Number of people added to the Atlantic and Gulf coastal areas from North Carolina to Texas between 1950 and 2006. Florida alone was responsible for the bulk of this increase (almost 15 million).
Florida -17.6 million - Estimated 2006 coastal population of Florida, accounting for half of the coastal population of the states stretching from North Carolina to Texas. Among the Sunshine State’s coastal population, 10.5 million lived along the Atlantic and 7.1 million along the Gulf.
352 people per square mile - The 2006 population density of Florida’s coastal areas, which leads the entire area between North Carolina and Texas in coastal population density.

Hurricanes Past
38,000 - Population of Galveston, Texas, at the time of the city’s "Great Storm" on Sept. 8, 1900, that killed more than 8,000 people. At that time, Galveston, Dallas and Houston had similar populations.
223,388 - Estimated population of New Orleans on July 1, 2006 — less than one year after Hurricane Katrina struck. The city’s population was down
50.6 percent from a year earlier.

3. Hurricane Data and Emergency Preparedness

Interested in characteristics (economy, housing, people, maps) of areas impacted by hurricanes Rita, Wilma and Katrina in 2006? Visit the Census Bureau home page and click on Hurricane and Emergency Preparedness.

The Census Bureau helps local leaders use census data to prepare for and recover from emergencies in their communities. Special population estimates provide a before and after look at the population of the impacted area and before and after characteristics of the population and housing.

4. Historical Data and Coastal Area Teaching Suggestion

The Census Bureau Web site contains many links that teachers can use to develop ideas for lessons. One area of the site provides historical census population and housing counts for the United States, states, regions and divisions, metropolitan areas, large cities, and coastal regions. Teachers and students can mine data, evaluate information, and apply ideas by comparing and contrasting, mapping, graphing, and charting information.

Using the chart on the attached PDF, create a line graph showing the Atlantic and Gulf Area coastal populations between 1960 and 2005 and the total U.S. population for the same years. Describe the rate of change of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast population compared with the total U.S. population.

Twelve percent of the U.S. population currently resides in the coastal counties from North Carolina to Texas. Use the chart to calculate the percentage that resided in these coastal counties from 1960 to 2005.
Describe how the portion of the U.S. population residing in these areas has changed.

The table above shows how many states have coastal counties. Click on graphic and "open link".

To visit the historical section of the Census Bureau’s Web site go to www.census.gov, click on "People and Households" and click on Historical Census Data.

5. Facts for Features

Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act (July 26) — In observance of the 17th anniversary of the enactment of this ground breaking law, statistical information from the Census Bureau’s demographic subject areas about people with disabilities.

To see the latest facts, visit here

6. Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about Census in Schools, please call Kim Crews or Vicki Glasier at 301-763-3626 or e-mail: pio.census.in.schools@census.gov.