Survey finds 1.3% of US adults displaced by natural disasters in past year

A first-of-its-kind survey found that natural disasters displaced 3.3 million U.S. adults in the past year. That’s 1.3 % of the population, according to the Associated Press.

The Household Pulse Survey is responsible for the findings. Hurricanes made up the majority of displacements, and fires, floods, and tornadoes made up most of the remainder.

The survey included displacements no matter how short a period of time, meaning one-third of those were displaced for less than a week before returning home. One in 6 never returned home.

Gerald Herbert/AP

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The worst hit areas were in the Southeast due to their being in the path of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, which hit less than a month apart. One in 8 Louisiana adults was displaced at any one time, and the same goes for 1 in 17 Florida adults.

In contrast, the areas least affected were located primarily in the Midwest: Indiana, North Dakota, and Ohio, along with Maine and Oklahoma.

Those affected were mostly the poor, while the demographic impact was spread mostly even among the U.S. population.

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Months later, the impact of the hurricanes particularly is still being felt; on Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a declaration expanding the state of emergency, arguing that many areas are still recovering.

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The Household Pulse Survey sent out invitations to over 1 million households, receiving 70,685 responses in mid-December.