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| Home Front: Economy |
| Katrina exodus unprecedented in U.S. |
| 2005-09-07 |
| Tens of thousands of evacuees are heading to communities in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota, cold weather states with welcoming hearts. The first 200 of an expected 2,000 evacuees from soggy, hurricane-battered New Orleans arrived in Chicago Tuesday as thousands more headed to the Midwest. The evacuees were taken to a center in Fosco Park on the near West Side to be briefed and moved to temporary housing. The first planeload of 140 evacuees arrived at Battle Creek Air National Guard base in Michigan Monday afternoon and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle said his state was prepared to clothe, shelter and feed 5,000 evacuees for months. Up to 3,000 evacuees were expected in Minnesota in a relief exercise the state National Guard dubbed Operation Northern Comfort. A majority of the 500,000 displaced residents of New Orleans are staying closer to home in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee Arkansas and Florida, but evacuees are being housed as far away from Louisiana as Colorado and Massachusetts. This resonates with an interesting comment in the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web blog (registration req'd) If Katrina's aftermath was, or is seen to have been, a government failure, state and local officials in the affected states--especially Louisiana--are likely to pay a price. And Katrina may change Louisiana politics for another reason: demographics. The storm forced a mass exodus from New Orleans and vicinity, and many residents surely will resettle out of state. The political effect will depend on whence the emigrants turn out to have come. In the 2004 election, President Bush carried Louisiana by 281,870 votes, according to data from David Leip's election atlas. A breakdown by parish shows that the two candidates ran almost exactly even in the New Orleans area: John Kerry had a 109,763-vote margin within the city (Orleans Parish), while Bush beat Kerry by a combined 109,546 votes in the suburban parishes of Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany. Obviously if more New Orleans residents than suburbanites move out of state, Louisiana will become more Republican. Less obviously, the state will become more Republican even if flight from the suburbs equals that from New Orleans, since the evenly divided New Orleans region will account for a smaller part of the population than the heavily GOP-leaning rest of the state. New Orleans's Mayor Ray Nagin is up for re-election in February 2006, Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu in November 2007, and Sen. Mary Landrieu in November 2008. All four are Democrats. When they point the finger at the federal government for whatever went wrong in the Katrina response, remember that they are fighting for their political lives. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #4 The way I hear it they're headed west to Texas where they'll be swamped, either way. Consider this, the tax loss to LA will be big. Property and Income. I hope we help LA every bit as much as MS, and not a penny more. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-09-07 20:46 |
| #3 Yep, it's a new thing. |
| Posted by: P Joad 2005-09-07 19:53 |
| #2 Most will return south eventually. My LA friends don't care for the "chill bumps" weather up north. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-09-07 00:30 |
| #1 Evacuee's relocating so far north, hmmmm, just when winter is around the corner. When I drove down during spring break from Colorado, some had never seen studded tires (I never changed my tires just for the one week trip). Hopefully they will adapt easily. |
| Posted by: Jan 2005-09-07 00:24 |