Currently — January 11th, 2023
What you need to know, currently.
In the US, 3.3 million adults — or more than 1.3 percent of the adult population — were displaced by climate disasters in the past year, according to The Household Pulse Survey. Hurricanes were responsible for more than half of the forced relocations, according to a US Census Bureau survey.
More than 1.9 million people were displaced by hurricanes; 665,000 people were displaced by flooding, about 660,000 from fires, and more than 320,000 from tornadoes.
Indiana, Maine, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma are the states with the lowest rates of adults being displaced by disasters, while Florida and Louisiana were the states with the highest rates of displacement. In Florida — which was bombarded by both Hurricane Ian and Nicole in the fall — almost 1 million people, or about one in 17 adult residents, were displaced. More than 409,000 people, or almost one in eight residents were displaced in Louisiana, as residents continued to deal with the impacts of 2021’s Hurricane Ida.
However, the displacement wasn’t equal across different incomes. About 22 percent of displaced adults had a reported household income of less than $25,0000 a year, compared to 17.4 percent of the overall US population.
More than a third of those displaced were out of their homes for a week. About one in six persons, which is more than 543,000 people, never returned home.
—Aarohi Sheth
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