The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency Thursday sharply increased its count of people displaced from the Gulf Coast by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to about 2 million people.
According to a news release, FEMA is paying rental assistance to 685,635 families whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the Aug. 29 and Sept. 24 storms, an increase of 167,000, or 32 percent, over a month ago. FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews attributed the rise to a reporting error.
In December, the agency counted only recipients of a transitional housing assistance program created on Sept. 23, the spokeswoman said. Shortly before Christmas, FEMA discovered that it had not counted families receiving rental assistance under a traditional disaster aid program, she said.
"We've never had a situation where an entire American city was evacuated, and they weren't able to go home," she said. "These numbers represent that phenomenon."
The figure exceeds initial post-hurricane estimate of 300,000 displaced families and an October estimate by FEMA to Congress of 450,000 to 600,000 households. FEMA officials generally estimate three people per household as a rule of thumb.
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