Hurricane high-risk areas lose residents

After decades of breakneck growth in high-risk areas, the summer hurricane season is starting with fewer Americans in harm's way.

The number of people who live in coastal areas that are most vulnerable to wind and water has fallen slightly since 2000, reversing an extended boom that brought tens of thousands of homes and high-rises to low-lying regions from Texas to Georgia, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

About 2.1 million people live full time in those areas, down less than 1% over the past eight years.

That doesn't mean Americans are thinking twice about living in vulnerable spots, says Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute. Instead, he says, the slowdown is more likely a result of a housing market crunch that's left some homes vacant — and others half-built — in once fast-growing parts of the South.

"Memories are short, and when the economy does recover, you'll see people snap up those properties in coastal areas again," Hartwig says.

The steepest population losses were in the coastal parishes of Louisiana, flattened nearly three years ago by Hurricane Katrina. In St. Bernard Parish, a flat expanse outside New Orleans surrounded by swamps and the sea, the number of residents in the highest-risk neighborhoods dropped by two-thirds since 2000.

Part of the reason may be that it is simply more difficult to move to those areas.

Across the Gulf Coast, the areas most vulnerable to hurricanes also suffered the worst damage in the 2005 storms. As a result, rebuilding there has been a longer, more complex task than in other places, says Greg Rigamer, head of the New Orleans planning firm GCR & Associates, which has tracked the region's recovery.

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