Hitting the Poor Hardest

Some incredibly depressing statistics, courtesy of the Census Bureau:

• An estimated 9.7 million people live in the areas of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi that were hit by Hurricane Katrina.
• More than 16 percent of Alabamians (706,070 people) live in poverty.
• More than 21 percent of Mississippi residents (603,954 people) are impoverished.
• One in five Louisiana residents live in poverty. That includes nearly 200,000 people in the New Orleans metro area, and one in four residents of the city of New Orleans itself.