More than 270,000 evacuees ended up in shelters after Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita. A poll of 680 randomly selected evacuees
conducted in Houston, Texas, shelters in September 2005 reveals
a cross section of America’s most vulnerable citizens. “A year
later,” Bill Quigley, a civil and human rights lawyer at Loyola
University New Orleans School of Law, told Sojourners, “we have
learned that the poor and disabled who were left behind in the
evacuation of New Orleans have again been left behind in the
rebuilding.” Among those interviewed: - 93 percent were African
American, 5 percent were white, and 4 percent Latino. - 79
percent had no friends or relatives they could move in with
until they were “back on their feet.” - 74 percent had annual
household incomes of $30,000 or less, and, for 77 percent, high
school was the highest educational level achieved. - 72 percent
had no property insurance to cover their losses, 68 percent had
no bank account, and 52 percent had no health insurance. - 64
percent were renters,