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Chapter Appendix E - Endnotes

 Section Chapter One: Katrina in Perspective

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Chapter One: Katrina in Perspective

1 The White House, “Proclamation by the President: National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims of Hurricane Katrina,” news release, September 8, 2005, .

2 As measured by damage to property.  Measuring destructiveness in terms of damage to property rather than loss of life is a useful way to compare disasters.  Loss of life reflects both the magnitude of the disaster, as well as the quality of the response, while property destruction correlates more directly to the magnitude of the disaster alone.

3 In 1871, Chicago was the fifth largest city in the United States, with a population of almost 300,000.  The fire killed 300 people, made one-third of the city homeless, and destroyed a third of the city’s property.  For Chicago Fire deaths and population displacement, see Lawrence J. Vale and Thomas J. Campanella, eds., The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster “Resilient City”  (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 28; U.S. Census Bureau, “Table 10. Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1870,” June 15, 1998, . For all other Chicago Fire statistics, see Chicago Historical Society, “The Great Chicago Fire,” ; The Chicago Fire and the Fire Insurance Companies (New York: J.H. and C.M. Goodsell, 1871); and Insurance Year Book (1874).  (Note that statistics for disasters can vary significantly depending on the source consulted, both due to variances in how terms are defined and the lack of consistent historical records.)

For statistics on the San Francisco Earthquake/Fire and Hurricane Andrew, see Figure 1.1 and accompanying notes.

4 Rebecca Watson, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, U.S. Department of the Interior, written statement for a hearing on Global Oil Demand/Gasoline Prices, on September 6, 2005, submitted to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, 109th Congress, 1st session.

5 U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, “Hurricane Katrina Situation Report #6,” August 28, 2005.

6 Evidence suggests that Hurricane Katrina reached Category 3 intensity as it made second landfall, but that only winds to the east of the eye sustained Category 3 speeds.  New Orleans probably experienced Category 2 wind speeds at most.  See Richard D. Knabb, Jamie R. Rhome, and Daniel P. Brown, Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Katrina, August 23-30, 2005 “Katrina Tropical Cyclone Report” , prepared for the National Hurricane Center (Miami, Florida, December 20, 2005), 8.  Under the Saffir-Simpson scale, Category 3 hurricanes are characterized by winds of 111—130 miles per hour.  For an explanation of the Saffir-Simpson scale, see U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center, “The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale,” “NHC Saffir-Simpson Scale”  .  During the same period (1851—2005), eighteen Category 4 and three Category 5 hurricanes hit the United States.  For hurricane statistics through 2004, see Eric S. Blake et al., The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Tropical Cyclones from 1851 to 2004 (And Other Frequently Requested Hurricane Facts) “United States Tropical Cyclones” , NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS TPC-4 (Miami, Florida, August 2005), 12, .  For 2005 hurricane data, see U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center, “2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season Tropical Cyclone Reports,” ; U.S. Department of Commerce, National Climatic Data Center and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Satellite Information Service, “Climate of 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season,” .

7 Hurricane Camille is a useful point of comparison—until the 2005 hurricane season, it was the second most intense hurricane of record ever to strike the United States.  U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center, “Hurricane History—Hurricane Camille, 1969,” “Hurricane History—Hurricane Camille” , .  Under the Saffir-Simpson scale, Category 5 hurricanes are characterized by winds greater than 155 miles per hour.  See NHC Saffir-Simpson Scale.

8 Axel Graumann et al., Hurricane Katrina: A Climatological Perspective: Preliminary Report “Climatological Perspective” , Technical Report 2005-01, prepared for the National Climatic Data Center, (Asheville, NC, January 2006), 21, .  For Hurricane Camille’s strength on landfall, see Hurricane History—Hurricane Camille.

9 Climatological Perspective, 21.  Hurricane force winds are defined as those 64 knots (74 miles per hour) or above lasting for one minute at ten meters above ground with unobstructed exposure.  For Hurricane Katrina, the radius was 103.5 miles in the northeast and southeast quadrants, and 69 miles in the northwest and southwest quadrants.  Northern moving systems like Katrina typically have stronger winds to the east, as the storm’s clockwise rotation results in greater centrifugal force, and therefore force, in that direction.  Katrina Tropical Cyclone Report, 3.

10 Katrina Tropical Cyclone Report, 9.  The report states: “Even though Hurricane Camille (1969) was more intense than Katrina at landfall while following a similar track, Camille was far more compact and produced comparably high storm surge values along a much narrower swath.”  See U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center, “Preliminary Report on Hurricane Camille: August 14-22, 1969,” .  See U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, “Preliminary Storm Report: Hurricane Katrina,” September 6, 2005, .

11 Estimates on the total affected area vary according to the criteria selected.  The estimate of 93,000 square miles was derived by adding the areas of the 138 parishes and counties first declared Major Disaster areas and made eligible for Individual Assistance or Public Assistance, Categories C – G (31 in Louisiana, 74 in Mississippi, 22 in Alabama, and 11 in Florida).  The exact sum is 92,930 square miles.  See also U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “United States Government Response to the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,” news release, September 1, 2005, .

12 Katrina Tropical Cyclone Report, 8-9.

13 Katrina Tropical Cyclone Report, 8-9.

14 Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, “DOTD’s ‘Louisiana Team’ to Collect Data on Levee Failures,” news release, October 10, 2005, .  See also Dr. Ivor van Heerden, written statement for a hearing on Hurricane Katrina: Performance of the Flood Control System, on November 2, 2005, submitted to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 109th Congress, 1st session.

15 See Katrina Tropical Cyclone Report, 9.

16 U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Estimates of the Population for Incorporated Places over 100,000, Ranked by July 1, 2004 Population: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2004,” Cities & Towns: Places over 1,000: 2000 to 2004, .  The estimate of the population of New Orleans on July 1, 2004 was 462,269.

17 The Galveston Hurricane was a tremendous human tragedy.  At least 8,000 people lost their lives in this storm.  See United States Tropical Cyclones, 12,  (estimating 8,000—12,000 deaths); U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center, “Hurricane History—Galveston Hurricane, 1900,”  (estimating 6,000—12,000 deaths); Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (New York: Random House, 1999), 264-265 (estimating 6,000—10,000 deaths); and Galveston Historical Foundation, “Galveston History,”  (estimating over 6,000 deaths and stating that Galveston was the fourth largest city in Texas at the time).

18 Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi, testimony before a hearing on Hurricane Katrina: Recovering from Hurricane Katrina, on September 7, 2005, House Committee on Energy and Commerce, 109th Congress, 1st session; Haley Barbour as quoted on the Public Broadcasting Service, “Storm-Ravaged Mississippi,” NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, September 7, 2005, .

19 See Dr. Robert C. Sheets, former Director of the National Hurricane Center, testimony before a hearing onRebuilding FEMA: Preparing for the Next Disaster, on May 18, 1993, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, 103rd Congress, 1st session.

20 Unless otherwise specified, all damage estimates in this chapter are in third-quarter 2005 dollars.

21 Figure 1.1 includes both the most deadly and the most destructive natural disaster from each decade in the period 1900 to 2005.  Often, these are the same disaster.  The four major Atlantic hurricanes of 2004, while neither the most deadly nor most destructive of the decade, are also included to provide context on recent hurricane activity.  They are grouped because they struck overlapping areas, in rapid succession, and together constituted the most damaging U.S. hurricane season on record until Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.  The disasters included in the chart are discrete, violent natural disasters in the United States.  They do not include terrorist events, technological failures (e.g., dams breaking or ferries sinking), or protracted, non-destructive natural events such as deadly heat waves or epidemics, which are difficult to compare to discrete, violent events.  Where multiple death estimates are available, the highest credible estimate is shown, capturing deaths caused both directly and indirectly by the event.  Where multiple damage estimates are available, the lowest credible estimate is shown, excluding local post-disaster inflation effects and effects on the national economy.

The chart does not reflect the enormous loss of life due to the pandemic influenza—sometimes known as the “Spanish Flu”—outbreak of 1918—1919, which claimed the lives of approximately 500,000 Americans and over 20 million people worldwide.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Vaccine Program Office, “Pandemics and Pandemic Scares in the 20th Century,” last revised February 12, 2004, .  See generally Alfred W. Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Table 1.2, below, contains the data used in Figure 1.1

Table 1.2  Worst Natural Disasters in the United States, 1900-2005

Damage in Third Quarter 2005 dollars

Top Disasters                                                                                             Estimated deaths          Estimated damage

Galveston Hurricane (1900)                                                                              8,000                          < $1 billion

San Francisco Earthquake and Fire (1906)                                                    5,000                          $6 billion

Atlantic-Gulf Hurricane (1919)                                                                          600                             < $1 billion

Mississippi Floods (1927)                                                                                   246                             $2 billion

Hurricane San Felipe and the Okeechobee Flood (1928)                           2,750                          < $1 billion

New England Hurricane (1938)                                                                         600                             $4 billion

Northeast Hurricane (1944)                                                                              390                             < $1 billion

Hurricane Diane (1955)                                                                                      184                             $5 billion

Hurricane Audrey (1957)                                                                                   390                             < $1 billion

Hurricane Betsy (1965)                                                                                       75                               $7 billion

Hurricane Camille (1969)                                                                                   335                             $6 billion

Hurricane Agnes (1972)                                                                                     122                             $8 billion

Hurricane Hugo (1989)                                                                                       86                               $11 billion

Hurricane Andrew (1992)                                                                                  61                               $33 billion

East Coast Blizzard (1993)                                                                                 270                             $4 billion

Major 2004 Hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne)                         167                             $46 billion

Hurricane Katrina (2005)                                                                                   1,330                          $96 billion

Note that statistics for disasters can vary significantly depending on the source consulted, both due to variances in how terms are defined and the lack of consistent historical records.

For statistics on those hurricanes not listed separately below, see United States Tropical Cyclones; U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center,“Hurricane History,” ; U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, “Memorial Web Page for the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane,” ; Russell L. Pfost, “Reassessing the Impact of Two Historical Florida Hurricanes” (American Meteorological Society, Boston 2003), 1367; and U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center, “NHC/TPC Archive of Past Hurricane Seasons,” .

For the Galveston Hurricane, see note 17.

For the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, see Resilient City, 28 (estimating 5,000 deaths); Harry Chase Brearley, Fifty Years of a Civilizing Force: An Historical and Critical Study of the Work of the National Board of Fire Underwriters (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1916), 98-100 (estimating $6 billion in property damage); U.S. Geological Survey, “Casualties and damage after the 1906 Earthquake,”  (estimating more than 3,000 deaths and $7 billion in property damage).  See generally Rutherford H. Platt, “The Bay Area: One Disaster After Another,” in Rutherford H. Platt, ed., Disasters and Democracy: The Politics of Extreme Natural Events (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1999), 245-247; Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco, “The Great 1906 Earthquake And Fire,” .

For the 1927 Mississippi floods, see Paul S. Trotter et al., “Floods on the Lower Mississippi: An Historical Economic Overview,” technical attachment prepared for the National Weather Service,  (estimating 246 deaths and $2 billion in property damage); Miriam Gradie Anderson and Rutherford H. Platt, “St. Charles County, Missouri: Federal Dollars and the 1993 Flood,” in Platt, Disasters and Democracy: The Politics of Extreme Natural Events (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1999), 215-216 (estimating 245-500 deaths).

For Hurricane Camille, see Ernest Zebrowski and Judith A. Howard, Category 5:  The Story of Camille “The Story of Camille”  (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2005), 266 (reporting 335 deaths); Roger A. Pielke, Jr., Chantal Simonpietri, and Jennifer Oxelson, Thirty Years After Hurricane Camille: Lessons Learned, Lessons Lost (Boulder, Colorado, July 1999) (estimating more than 200 deaths); Hurricane History—Hurricane Camille (reporting 256 deaths and $6 billion in damage).

For Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew, the East Coast Blizzard, and the major 2004 hurricanes, see U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Satellite and Information Service and National Climatic Data Center, “1980-2003 Billion Dollar U.S. Disasters,” in A Climatology of 1980-2003 Extreme Weather and Climate Events, Technical Report 2003-01 “Billion Dollar U.S. Disasters”  (Asheville, NC, December 2003), ; Ed Rappaport, “Preliminary Report: Hurricane Andrew, 16 - 28 August, 1992, prepared for the National Hurricane Center” “Preliminary Report: Hurricane Andrew” (Miami, Florida, December 1993), ; U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center,“Hurricane History,” .

For Hurricane Katrina deaths, see Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, “Reports of Missing and Deceased” “Louisiana Missing and Deceased” , February 17, 2006, ; Katrina Tropical Cyclone Report.  For property damage, see U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Damages and Insurance Settlements from the Third-quarter Hurricanes,”  (estimates reflect data as of December 21, 2005); U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Estimated Damage and Insurance Settlements Effects from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma on Monthly Personal Income,” “Estimated Damage and Insurance Settlements Effects from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma”   (accessed on January 20, 2006).

For GDP deflation, see U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Gross Domestic Product and Corporate Profits: Third Quarter 2005 ‘final’ estimates,” news release, December 21, 2005, ; and Louis D. Johnston and Samuel H. Williamson, “The Annual Real and Nominal GDP for the United States, 1790—Present,” Economic History Services, October 2005, .

22 The three next most costly natural disasters are Hurricane Andrew, which hit south Florida in 1992 ($33 billion), the Midwest Floods of 1993 ($27 billion), and the Northridge Earthquake, which hit southern California in 1994 ($25 billion).  By comparison, the direct damages caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks totaled $18 billion.  See Robert Looney, “Economic Costs to the United States Stemming From the 9/11 Attacks,” Strategic Insights 1, no. 6 (Monterey, CA, August 2002), .  Damages are in 2005 dollars.  For Hurricane Andrew, see note 21, above.  For the Midwest Floods, see Billion Dollar U.S. Disasters.  For the Northridge Earthquake, see U.S. Geological Survey, USGS Response to an Urban Earthquake – Northridge ’94 (n.d., ca. 1996), .

23 Numbers do not equal sum due to rounding.  Estimate derived from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Damages and Insurance Settlements from the Third-quarter Hurricanes,”  (estimates reflect data as of December 21, 2005); Estimated Damage and Insurance Settlements Effects from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

24 Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, prepared written statement for a hearing on Hurricane Katrina: The Homeland Security Department’s Preparation and Response, on February 15, 2006, submitted to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, 109th Congress, 2nd session.  Depending on the definition of “damaged and destroyed homes,” this number could be considerably higher or lower than the figure cited.

25 Damage to homes includes major but not minor damage.  Stanley K. Smith and Christopher McCarty, Demographic Effects of Natural Disasters: A Case Study of Hurricane Andrew “Demographic Effects of Natural Disasters” , Demography, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May, 1996), 266 (repeating results of American Red Cross survey).  Note that the authors of the case study provide a higher estimate of 144,100 houses destroyed or suffering major damage.

26 American Red Cross, “Hurricane Season 2004,” .

27 Damage to homes includes major but not minor damage.  For statistics on Hurricane Camille, see The Story of Camille, 226 (reporting 335 deaths); Roger A. Pielke, Jr., Chantal Simonpietri, and Jennifer Oxelson, Thirty Years After Hurricane Camille: Lessons Learned, Lessons Lost (Boulder, Colorado, July 1999) (estimating more than 200 deaths and 22,008 homes destroyed or damaged); Hurricane History—Hurricane Camille (reporting 256 deaths and $6 billion in damage).  For statistics on Hurricane Andrew, see Preliminary Report: Hurricane Andrew (reporting 61 deaths and $25 billion in damage); Demographic Effects of Natural Disasters (reporting 15 deaths and $22 billion in damage).  For statistics on Hurricane Ivan, see Billion Dollar U.S. Disasters, Technical Report 2003-01 (Asheville, NC, December 2003),  (reporting 57 deaths); American Red Cross, “Hurricane Season 2004,”  (reporting 63 deaths).  For statistics on Hurricane Katrina, see note 21.

28 Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, written statement submitted for a hearing on Hurricane Katrina: The Homeland Security Department’s Preparation and Response, on February 15, 2006, to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, 109th Congress, 2nd session.

29 Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, written statement for a hearing on “Hurricane Katrina: The Homeland Security Department’s Preparation and Response,” on February 15, 2006, submitted to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, 109th Congress, 2nd session.

30 A football field is 120 yards long by 53 yards wide.  End-zones are included in this calculation.  National Football League, “Beginner’s Guide to Football,” .  Based upon this, the height of debris is calculated by finding the volume of the debris stacked on the football field.  This is done by dividing 118,000,000 by the product of 120 and 53:  118,000,000 / 6360 = 18,553 yards.  There are 1760 yards in a mile, so the number of miles high is then calculated by dividing 18,553 by 1760:  18,553 / 1760 = 10.5.  So the debris, if stacked onto the space of a football field, would reach ten and a half miles high.

31 The methodology and time period examined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in developing these statistics for “most affected areas” differ from those used to develop the estimate of areas “impacted” by Hurricane Katrina included in note 11.  First, the Bureau of Labor Statistics defines “most affected areas” as the thirty-four parishes in Louisiana and forty-seven counties in Mississippi that FEMA designated for both individual and public disaster assistance.  This Report defines areas “impacted” by Hurricane Katrina as those parishes and counties designated for individual assistance and/or public assistance, categories C-G (reimbursement for rebuilding and/or replacing disaster-damaged public facilities such as roads, bridges, and public buildings).  Second, the Bureau of Labor Statistics includes all counties designated for assistance as of September 30, 2005, thereby including the areas affected by Hurricane Rita in addition to those affected by Katrina.  By contrast, this Report’s methodology on this point only includes those counties and parishes designated for assistance as of August 29, 2005, thereby counting only those counties that were affected by Katrina.  U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Labor Market Statistics for Areas Affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: September and October 2005,” ; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Labor Market Statistics Prior to Disaster for Areas Affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” .

32 U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, “State Personal Income: Third Quarter 2005,” news release, December 20, 2005, 4, .

33 Nationwide all grade conventional retail prices increased from $2.28 per gallon on August 1 and $2.62 on August 29, to peak at $3.08 on September 5.  U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, “Retail Gasoline Historical Prices, Worksheet for U.S. All Grades Conventional Retail Gas Prices (Cent Per Gallon),” All Grades spreadsheet, .  While gas prices had risen steadily throughout 2005 due to increasing global demand for crude oil, the temporary shutdown of major oil refineries and pipelines in the Gulf region as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina spurred a sharp and sudden drop in domestic supply that further exacerbated this price incline.  See U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, “A Primer on Gasoline Prices,”  (accessed February 6, 2006).

34 U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, “Hurricane Katrina/Hurricane Rita Evacuation and Production Shut-in Statistics Report,” news release, January 11, 2006, .

35 U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, “Hurricane Katrina Situation Report #10,” August 30, 2005.

36 Stacy R. Stewart, Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Ivan, 2-24 September 2004, prepared for the National Hurricane Center (Miami, Florida, May 2005), .

37 Kenneth Moran, Director of the Office of Homeland Security, Enforcement Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, testimony before a hearing on Ensuring Operability During Catastrophic Events, House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science, and Technology, October 26, 2005, 109th Congress, 1st session.

38 Kenneth Moran, Director of the Office of Homeland Security, Enforcement Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, written statement for a hearing on Hurricane Katrina and Communications Interoperability, on September 29, 2005, submitted to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, 109th Congress, 1st session.

39 Kevin J. Martin, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission, written statement provided for a hearing on Public Safety Communications from 9/11 to Katrina: Critical Public Policy Lessons, submitted to Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Committee on Energy and Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives September 29, 2005.

40 Louisiana Hurricane Recovery Resources, “Energy, Oil, and Gas,”  (accessed January 11, 2006); U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, “Gulf Coast Hurricanes Situation Report #31,” October 31, 2005.

41 The ten major to medium spills caused by Katrina accounted for 7,359,990 gallons.  Given that 134 spills of less than 10,000 gallons have not been assessed in detail, the actual oil spill figure for Hurricane Katrina is likely higher than 7.4 million gallons.  Louisiana Hurricane Recovery Resource, “Energy, Oil, and Gas,”  (accessed January 11, 2006).  The Exxon Valdez spilled about 10.8 million gallons into the waters off of Alaska.  See Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, “Excerpt from the Official Report on the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill,”  (accessed January 11, 2006).

42 Gulf Coast Hurricane Emergency Environmental Protection Act of 2005, H. Res. 4139, 109th Congress, 1st session (October 25, 2005).

43 As of the time of writing, Louisiana has recovered 1,103 bodies, 23 of which were not storm related, for 1,080 storm related deaths.  See Louisiana Missing and Deceased.  There were 231 deaths in Mississippi, fifteen in Florida, two in Alabama, and two in Georgia.  See Katrina Tropical Cyclone Report, 10.  Since there are still at least 2,096 people from the Gulf Coast area missing, it is likely that the death toll numbers will increase.

44 For the number of dead in other states, see Katrina Tropical Cyclone Report, 10.  For the definition of the New Orleans metropolitan area, see The White House, Office of Management and Budget, “Updates of Statistical Area Definitions and Guidance on Their Uses,” OMB Bulletin 06 – 01, December 5, 2005, 42, .

45 These numbers were extrapolated from data on 754 released bodies of known age, of which 183 were between the ages of sixty-one and seventy-five and 355 were over the age of seventy-five.  Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, “Vital Statistics of All Bodies at St. Gabriel Morgue,” January 18, 2006, www.dhh.state.la.us/offices/ publications/pubs-192/5796.pdf.

46 Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, “Deceased Katrina Victims Released to Families 11-4-2005,” news release, November 4, 2005, .

47 As of February 17, 2006, 191 victims were unclaimed.  Louisiana Missing and Deceased.

48 Louisiana Missing and Deceased.  In the immediate wake of the hurricane, the Department of Justice requested that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) establish a hotline to accept reports of missing children and adults related to both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  As of February 13, 2006, 97 percent of the 5,071 missing children cases reported to the NCMEC for Hurricane Katrina had been resolved, with the majority of the unresolved cases in Louisiana.  The NCMEC received 12,514 reports of missing adults, all of which were referred to the National Center for Missing Adults (NCMA).  National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, “Katrina/Rita Missing Persons Hotline: Update on calls/cases,” report through February 13, 2006, .

49 Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, testimony before a hearing on Hurricane Katrina: The Homeland Security Department’s Preparation and Response, on February 15, 2006, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, 109th Congress, 2nd session.  In the first half of the 1930s, almost one million people left the plains, and after 1935, 2.5 million left.  Not all of this migration, however, was due to the Dust Bowl, as drought and changing economic conditions played a factor as well.  Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 49.

50 By January 13, only 82 individuals still resided in transient shelters in Louisiana, representing those few who were ineligible for housing programs or had refused other housing options.  Scott Wells, Deputy Federal Coordinating Officer for Louisiana, testimony before a hearing on Housing Needs after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, on January 13, 2006, House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, 109th Congress, 2nd session.

51 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Secretary Leavitt To Gulf Region: Announces Streamlines Access to Benefits for Hurricane Katrina Victims,” news release, September 13, 2005.  See also Arizona Department of Health Services, “Hurricane Evacuees Find Lost Records-And More-Through Arizona’s Office of Vital Records,” news release, September 23, 2005, ; District of Columbia Office of the Mayor, “Mayor Williams Introduces Legislation to Aid Katrina Victims,” September 20, 2005, .

52 HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said that most of those displaced by Katrina did not have access to their medical records.  Sarah A. Lister, Hurricane Katrina: The Public Health and Medical Response, Congressional Research Service Report for Congress RL33096 (Washington, DC, September 21, 2005).

53 Bruce Katz, Matt Fellowes, and Mia Mabanta, Katrina Index: Tracking Variables of Post-Katrina Reconstruction (Washington, DC: Brookings Institute, February 2006,), 24, 38, 40, 44.

54 U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, “Addendum: Revisions/Updates to the Dec. 15 Katrina Economic Impact Report,” December 2005.  In total, Katrina, combined with Hurricanes Rita and Wilma, forced about 600,000 into unemployment.  This is measured by the number of jobless claims benefits with the hurricanes listed as the primary reason.

55 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Labor Market Statistics Prior to Disaster for Areas Affected by Hurricane Katrina,” September and October 2005, .

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