Katrina factoid

[Johnny_L.A]

Last night on CNN I saw a factoid on the ticker: Katrina has affected over 90,000 square miles, an area larger than Great Britain.

One site I found lists the UK as being over 94,000 sq. miles. I wonder what they mean ‘affected’? Devastation? Or just relatively normal flooding?

[Revtim]

If just the power was knocked out, I’d say that’s an effect.

[levdrakon]

The population of GB is I think around 60 million. So, if as a result of Katrina 60 million people were without power, or 60 million people had been flooded out of their homes, that would be pretty significant. That would be almost 1/4 of the US.

[Johnny_L.A]

@levdrakon

The population of GB is I think around 60 million. So, if as a result of Katrina 60 million people were without power, or 60 million people had been flooded out of their homes, that would be pretty significant. That would be almost 1/4 of the US.

I believe the ticker-writer was referring to area, not population.

[levdrakon]

I know that. I also know Katrina left an estimated 5 million people without power. Is 5 million people roughly the population of Great Britain?

I’m just pointing out my own factoid, is all.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

CIA World Factbook on the UK

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html

People United Kingdom

Population:
60,441,457 (July 2005 est.)

Area:
total: 244,820 sq km
land: 241,590 sq km
water: 3,230 sq km
note: includes Rockall and Shetland Islands
Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than Oregon

[Kiminy]

I heard this factoid too–I think from W’s speech yesterday–but it definitely referred to square miles of affected area, rather than to population. Further research yields this story from the BBC, which includes this quote:

Mr Goodhand - head of logistics at the British Red Cross - said he would be working on establishing aid supply lines.

He said: "From what we have seen on TV, the scenes of devastation are far worse than we envisaged.

“It appears an area about the size of Great Britain has been hit, which is much more than could have been anticipated in the first few hours.”

I also found this article, which includes:

Huge disaster zone
With federal disaster declarations covering 90,000 square miles of the Gulf area — an area roughly the size of Great Britain — the scope of the devastation and the federal government’s response to it are unprecedented, White House spokesman Scott McLellan said at Thursday press conference.

I think it’s important to remember that most areas of the United States have considerably fewer people per square mile than most areas of Europe do.