Katrina Didn't Discriminate

We've all heard the claims that Hurricane Katrina was far worse for poor and black people than for wealthier white people. Apparently the figures don't bear this out. See this article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Quoting from A. Barton Hinkle's column, based on a Knight-Ridder study:

· THE MEDIAN income for the New Orleans area was $29,000. The median income in neighborhoods where bodies of Katrina victims were found was $27,000.

· One-fourth of the area's residents lived in Census tracts where the median income was $37,000 or higher. One-fourth of deaths attributed to Katrina occurred in Census tracts where the median income was above $35,300.

· Thirty-nine percent of New Orleans residents lived in neighborhoods where the poverty rate was higher than 30 percent. Forty-two percent of the bodies were recovered in those neighborhoods.

· Thirty percent of residents lived in neighborhoods where the poverty rate stood below 15 percent. Thirty-one percent of the bodies turned up there.

· In Orleans Parish, blacks made up 66 percent of the total population, and 62 percent of the victims of Katrina.

· In St. Bernard Parish, whites made up 88 percent of the residents, and 92 percent of the victims of Katrina.

· Men made up about 51 percent of the pre-Katrina population of New Orleans, and about 51 percent of the victims of the storm.

Hat tip: Robert Higgs