Fires, storms disrupt final weeks of census
Already ORLANDO, FLA. — burdened by the coronavirus pandemic and a tightened deadline, the Census Bureau must now contend with several natural disasters as wildfires and hurricanes disrupt the final weeks of thenation’s once-a-decade headcount.
The fire son the West Coast forced tens of thousands of people to flee homes in California and Oregon before they could be counted, and tens of thousands of others were uncounted in Louisiana communities hit hard last month by Hurricane Laura. Nearly a quarter million more households were uncounted in areas affected thisweek by Hurricane Sally.
The disasters add to the already laborious task of counting of every U.S. resident and increase the risk that the effort will miss people in some parts of the country.
“I can’t project if Mother Nature is going to let us finish, but we are going to do the best we can,” said Al Fontenot, associate director of the Census Bureau, who has repeatedly said the bureau is on target to complete the count at the end of the month.
The disasters make it challenging or impossible for census takers to visit households that have not yet answered questionnaires. And time is running out, with just two weeks left until the census is scheduled to end on Sept. 30.
In major cities in California and Oregon, smoke from nearby wildfires poses a health threat for census takers as they knock on doors.
“It’s really smoky, and no one wants to open their doors because of the hazardous air. I gave up yesterday and do not plan to go out today
unless it improves,” said a San Francisco census taker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear that she could lose her job.
Officials in San Jose, California, are encouraging residents to respond to census questions online or by phone or mail.
“Frankly, it’s not safe to be outside for more than a little bit,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said. “So, yes, it will affect us. We are going to hustle every other way we possibly can.”
If there is an undercount, states affected by the disasters could be short changed when some $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed annually to pay for roads, schools, health care and other programs. Since the census also determines how many congressional seats each state gets, states such as California that are on the verge of losing a seat because ofcould see their political power diluted.
Rep. Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said the recent disasters are another reason the deadline for ending the 2020census should be extended by
a month.
Because of the pandemic, the Census Bureau pushed back the deadline for finishing the count from the end of July to the end of October. Then the agency announced last month that the deadline would be changed to the end of September after the Republican-controlled Senate failed to pass a Census Bureau request for more time to turn in numbers used for redrawing congressional districts.
Some Democrats and activists believe the expedited schedule is politically motivated. A coalition of cities and civil rights groups are suing in federal court in San Jose, seeking an extra month.
“We knowthe shorter the time frame is, the more risk there is to an accurate count, and the more problems can arise,” Gomez said. “This is not usually the time of the year that the Census Bureau is doing the counting.”
The San Jose lawsuit contends that the sped-up time table will cause Latinos, Asian Americans and immigrants to be overlooked.