[See 3/9 Update Below]
Unfortunately, the U.S. Census Bureau won't be much help. In my communications with the Bureau last December, officials with the federal government's agency for accurate population data informed me that, "The Census Bureau doesn't not have any estimates on post Hurricane at any level. The earliest that this data would probably be included in our estimates is probably 2007." I was shocked and disappointed that the U.S. Census Bureau was not focusing on developing current population estimates following such a catastrophic disaster that had such a major impact on our nation's population.
However, another spokesperson explained to me that the results could come in August of this year and not sooner because, "Congress would need to fund a special survey to get more immediate results about the impact of the hurricane. Our current mechanism collects from a small rolling sample each month -- which is a sample size large enough to produce data for areas of 65,000 or more over the course of 2005. More immediate results would require a much larger sample size in a shorter period of time -- something like the decennial census -- which isn't funded."
Nonetheless, it seems to me that so many federal agencies have been involved in the hurricane response and recovery - can't the Bureau spare a few staff to work with local agencies to help develop good numbers to capture this historic event?
3/9 Update: On March 8, the Census Bureau posted on their website that by this summer, they will produce, "A special American Community Survey (ACS) data product designed to reflect characteristics of areas in which Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had a major impact. This product will have two components: one representing the characteristics of these areas for the first eight months of 2005 (from January through August) and the other representing the characteristics of these areas for the last four months of 2005 (from September through December)." Fantastic, kudos to the Bureau.
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