Details about this story

• Source: Sacramento Bee
• Date: January 22, 2006
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Phillip Reese
• Topics: Census , Disasters
• Data Types: Federal Data , Mapping
• Description/Excerpt: More than 150,000 of Sacramento County's most vulnerable residents - the elderly, the poor and the disabled - live in areas prone to substantial flooding, and local officials acknowledge they don't know whether they could quickly get them to safe ground. Matching U.S. Census data with state flood maps, the Bee found 54,000 residents listed as elderly, 89,000 listed as poor and 40,000 with a physical disability living in Sacramento County areas that could be under at least 2 feet of water if a bad flood hit - enough to require an evacuation. Those figures include about 25,000 residents who show up two or three times - for example, listed as both elderly and disabled.