(William M. Rodgers III -- Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy) Race, Class and Natural Disasters: Beyond Hurricane’s Katrina and Wilma: Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma re-ignited a variety of debates about social policy, particularly with regard to poverty and race. The images and stories reported in the media showed that low-income African Americans bore the brunt of the storm, the failing of the levies, and the slow response of local, state and federal governments. It is obvious that the magnitude of these natural disasters places them in a class of their own; however, since January 2006, 9 Major Disaster Area (MDA) declarations have been made. From 1953 to present, an average of 30 Major Disaster Area (MDA) designations are made each year. The designations can be the result of severe storms, flooding, earthquakes, and tornadoes. Although a small share of US counties is impacted by a natural disaster in a given year, they are frequent enough to create major destruction, dislocation and disruption to the economy.  The small, but growing economic literature on natural disasters tends to focus on estimating their regional impacts and the pace of a community’s recovery. Studies typically find that the adverse impacts felt in industries such as retail are offset by growth in construction. Some studies find that small businesses have greater difficulty recovering. Depending on the size and nature of the destruction, the path to recovery can take several years.  The goal of this project is to determine whether Hurricane Katrina and Wilma’s disparate racial and class impacts generalize across natural disasters. Do we see that prior to the disaster, areas that get MDA designations tend to have larger minority populations and lower levels of economic activity? Does it take minorities and/or low-income communities longer to recover from natural disasters? To answer these questions, I link data from FEMA on county disaster designations to the microdata files of the Outgoing Rotation Group (ORG) files of the Current Population Survey. The FEMA files which run from 1953 to present. Files from 1998 to present identify county, declaration date, incident type, incident period, and the type of assistance, (individual and/or public). The CPS files contain detailed information on the background and characteristics of individuals: race, education, employment, occupation and place of residence. Since 1995, a county identifier was added to the files. Although the ORG files are annual, they contain a variable that denotes the month in which the interview took place. Thus, we will be able to describe outcomes right up to and after the disaster’s occurrence.  A difference-in-difference methodology will be used to compare the outcomes of minorities in disaster-designated counties to those in counties that either did not have a disaster or were not designated as MDAs.