Impact of Hurricane Katrina on survey operations - The American Community Survey experience

The American Community Survey (ACS) collects data on basic demographics, social topics such as education, migration and language spoken, economic topics such as income and employment, and housing topics such as home value and rent. Data are collected throughout the entire calendar year, essentially each and every day of the year.

When Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, it created a path of destruction that devastated communities throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Less than a month later, Hurricane Rita struck the Texas-Louisiana border. The storm surge from Hurricane Rita caused severe damage along both the Louisiana and southeastern Texas coasts. These events prompted an exceptional level of migration of people from the affected areas into both surrounding and far away communities.

Staff within the Census Bureau immediately assembled to assess the impact of these two major disasters on their programs. The hurricanes created extraordinary circumstances and challenges for survey operations in the affected areas. Special procedures were developed to adapt to the emerging data collection realities for the ACS. Priority was given to developing methods that would ensure that the survey deliverables would be met. This paper discusses the strategies that were undertaken to continue data collection in these communities. It focuses on the survey challenges that existed in fall of 2005 and the survey challenges that continue today.