Post-Katrina: U.S. Poverty Rate 2007

This is another map taken from AmericanFactFinder that shows the percentage of people below the poverty line in the U.S. in 2007. The different shades of green represent the varying percentages of people who fell below the poverty line between 2005 and 2007. This is an interesting map because the data intersects with when Hurricane Katrina made touchdown in the Gulf Coast and with the aftermath years. If we were to overlap the Hometowns vs. Relocations map with this one, the two present a striking correlation. The darker green areas of the map show that many people residing in the South fall below the poverty line, and in the previous map, this is generally where most Post-Katrina people returned. Impoverished people were restricted to the South and unable to escape because their socioeconomic status impaired them and made transportation nearly impossible. I find this map interesting because the dark shades of green reiterate the fact that the South has always been a place of deep-rooted poverty in the U.S. The dark green is a reminder of the state in which many people live today; it is a reminder of the ongoing strife that Post-Katrina survivors still face, 4 years after the storm.