A set of demographic, socioeconomic and housing profiles of the cities and counties in Hurricane Rita’s path are now available on the Census Bureau’s Web site at <http://www.census.gov>, the Census Bureau announced today. The data can be accessed via the “FAQs” link or the “Question and Answer Center” on the home page. Since the Census Bureau’s main Web server is currently experiencing technical difficulties, these links and most of the data are accessible from a temporary home page.

     The profiles for each area include data on topics such as racial composition, education, income, poverty and number of housing units. Current (2004) American Community Survey data is available for more populous areas (those with populations of 250,000 or greater), while only data from Census 2000 is available for less populous areas.

     There are currently 10 coastal counties in Louisiana and Texas in the hurricane warning area; their combined total population is more than 1.1 million. In Louisiana, these counties include Cameron (population 9,681), Iberia (74,450),Vermillion (54,700) and St. Mary (52,100). In Texas, they are Brazoria (271,100), Calhoun (21,000), Chambers (28,200), Galveston (271,700), Jefferson (248,200) and Matagorda (38,100).

     More than 14 million people living in Texas and Louisiana are in the path of Hurricane Rita, whose landfall is expected to occur between Galveston, Texas, and Port Arthur, Texas.

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Note: The above calculations are based on projections of the storm’s path from the National Hurricane Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service, and Census Bureau population estimates as of July 1, 2004. These data do not present a full picture of the seasonal population increases of coastal or other tourist areas.