After the Hurricane

Rescued or Relocated? Examining FEMA aid's role in the recovery of Hurricane Katrina

DS4A:E4 Team 55

Rebecca Román, Eduardo Galvez, Elizabeth Mendoza, Abena Oni, Arthur Richards, Sheldon Snyder

My team hoped to analyze the impact FEMA aid had on the rebuilding of communities affected by Hurricane Katrina. We hoped to see if FEMA aid provided was sufficient in allowing people to remain in their communities after the disaster.

My Contributions

Data sourcing: Found datasets to use for analysis.

Data cleaning: Used multiple python libraries (pandas, goop, CPI) to combine multiple csv and dat files into one, filtered for relevant data, pivoted and melted data into a cohesive data frame, and accounted for inflation.

Visualizations: Used multiple python libraries (Matplotlib, Seaborn, pandas) to create line charts, stacked bar charts, box plots, and pie charts during our exploratory data analysis stage.

Tableau dashboard: Assisted in designing the layout and building the dashboard and stories.

Meetings: Facilitated several meetings and created agendas to help the team stay on track and complete our project within the given time frame.

Datafolio

Academic Report

Final Report

Overview

We originally started this project in order to gain a deeper understanding of Hurricane Katrina's impact on Louisiana. Our team's goal was to explore how FEMA aided communities in their recovery and rebuilding after the disaster. Throughout our research and analysis, we found out about other forms of relief aid, such as the Road Home program that offered assistance for rebuilding. Unfortunately, this data wasn't available to the public, and our requests for access was denied, so our analysis focused on FEMA aid. To determine if rebuilding and recovery happened we looked at various parishes, both affected and unaffected by Hurricane Katrina. We looked at several factors, including changes in income, home value, poverty, and demographics. The datasets we used for our analysis were obtained from various sources, including FEMA, the U.S. Census, Zillow, and the St. Louis Fed.

Interactive Dashboard

Impact

The current US disaster aid model assumes insurance companies should cover repair costs for homeowners and businesses, while FEMA provides aid in the form of grants for temporary housing and serious disaster-related expenses. Our analysis aimed to examine the correlation between FEMA aid and community recovery and make recommendations to improve the current aid model if needed for more equitable distribution of aid.

Presentation Final

Code

Language: Python

IDE: google colab, spyder

Libraries: Pandas, CPI, GOOP, Seaborn, Matplotlib, Plotly, numpy

Datasets: Zillow, Census, St. Louis Fed

Link for code

Findings

We found that many low income people were forced to leave their homes due to the hurricane. Poverty levels drastically dropped After The Hurricane. The population and demographics or Orleans Parish still have not returned to pre-Katrina levels. While people with lower incomes were given FEMA aid, the aid provided was not enough to allow people to rebuild their lives in their communities.

Google Sites

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