As Thousands of Gulf Coast Residents Left, Hispanics Moved In

According to new estimates by the Census Bureau this month, over 100,000 Hispanics have moved into communities along the Gulf Coast in the wake of the hurricane destruction that drove long-time residents away last fall. The government estimates that nearly a half million people have left since the hurricanes. Louisiana lost almost 300,000 people and St. Bernard Parish lost 95% of its residents. Of the 117 counties and parishes measured by the Census Bureau, 40 areas lost a total of 450,000 residents left the beleaguered area.

But the data released by the Census Bureau also shows that in the other 77 counties and parishes—most of which are inland—there were over 200,000 people added. Guillermo Meneses, spokesman for the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, has an explanation for the influx of Hispanics. The devastation wrought by the storms has created a tremendous need for rebuilding. "Where you see work and the opportunity for work, you will see Latinos," said. Meneses. In several spots around New Orleans, dozens of immigrants wait each morning to be picked up for a day's work.

Census officials acknowledge that are flaws in the accuracy of the data. In some areas hit the hardest, there weren’t many people left to count four months after the storms, creating a larger margin of error that in most census studies. Also, more residents have returned to some areas than others. Steve Murdock, a University of Texas demographer, explained the roughness of the figures. "It's a mistake to think that these numbers provide of a comprehensive look at the effects of Katrina. They provide a certain snapshot, but they are clearly only a partial picture."

Another flaw in the data is that population counts were skewed because only people living in households were counted. Hurricane refugees living in hotels and shelters were not contacted for the study. A good example of this problem is in Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located. According to the Census Bureau, the county grew by 93,000 people, but city and county officials say the population growth is more in the neighborhood of 150,000 people. "We know it says 90,000, but the number of people in the housing program alone exceeded that," said Frank Michel, spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White.

The Census Bureau, while acknowledging the problems, still insists that the data offers some insight into the people who were driven from their homes, the people who stayed behind, and who moved into the region over the months since the storms. Across the entire Gulf region, data showed large jumps in the percentage of people using food stamps. Average incomes in New Orleans increased by 16%, a jump that officials attribute to the fact that many of the poorest residents of the city were forced to leave.

In the New Orleans metropolitan area, which includes several mostly white suburbs, the black population dropped from 37% to 22%, while the white population grew from 60% to 73%. In three Gulf Coast counties in Mississippi, about 14% of the population left, with the number of white residents shrinking from 80% to 72%. In those same counties, the numbers of black people grew from 17% to 28%.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour isn’t concerned about the residents of his state leaving for good. "I don't have any concern about any kind of flight," Barbour said. "I think virtually everybody on the coast, or well over 90 percent of people who lived on the coast before the storm, intend to be living and will be living on the coast in the future."