Census Bureau Data Help Communities in Emergency Planning, Response and Recovery
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season officially began June 1, following a devastating 2024 season that saw 18 named storms. Of these, 11 developed into hurricanes and five intensified into major (Category 3 or higher) hurricanes, including Hurricane Helene.
To assist communities, states, and local governments with emergency event planning, we’re highlighting U.S. Census Bureau resources available to help local and state officials, emergency managers, event planners and others prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s outlook for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which goes until November 30, predicts a 30% chance of a near-normal season, a 60% chance of an above-normal season, and a 10% chance of a below-normal season.
The agency is forecasting a range of 13 to 19 total named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher). Of those, six to 10 are forecast to become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including three to five major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher).
To assist communities, states, and local governments with emergency event planning, we’re highlighting U.S. Census Bureau resources available to help local and state officials, emergency managers, event planners and others prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.
Our tools are designed to help communities gauge the potential effects of hurricanes on people and businesses in impacted areas.
In this article, we use Miami-Dade County, Florida, to illustrate the type of information each tool provides. Miami-Dade County, Florida’s most populous county, has received three presidential disaster declarations since the 2022 hurricane season.
Community Resilience Estimates
The Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) identify communities that may have a tougher time withstanding and recovering from natural disasters because of certain factors like age, education, poverty and housing conditions.
Estimates are available for every state, county and neighborhood (census tract) in the United States as well as U.S. territory Puerto Rico.
The Community Resilience Estimates Viewer is an interactive map that shows the number of people in these areas who may be particularly vulnerable to and have difficulty recovering from a disaster. According to the map, for example, 25% of people in Miami-Dade County may have difficulty recovering from natural disasters, significantly higher than the national estimate of 20.4%.
Note: Select the image to go to the interactive data tool.
Planners can use the Community Resilience Estimates Rankings to determine which counties and tracts are least resilient to the impacts of hurricanes.
This tool shows that the percentile rank for Miami-Dade County was 67.46, meaning a larger proportion of its population had low resiliency than about 67% of other counties with at least a “relatively moderate” risk of a hurricane.
The Community Resilience Estimates Ranking Tables are also available for data users to download.
Note: Select the image to go to the interactive data visualization.
The Community Resilience Estimates program is continuing to research and develop tools and encourages data users to send feedback on currently available ones and ideas for new disaster mitigation and recovery resources to sehsd.cre@census.gov.
Census Business Builder
The Census Business Builder (CBB) is an interactive tool that provides key economic and demographic data down to the census tract level.
During declared disasters, this tool allows users to access detailed supply chain reports highlighting top imports, employment patterns and potentially impacted products to help inform response and recovery efforts.
According to the CBB, some 10,000 U.S. employer establishments (those with at least one paid employee) closed and around 12,000 opened from March 2024 to March 2025. Information on the increase or decrease of establishments is key because it can help measure recovery efforts.
Note: Select the image to go to the interactive data tool.
OnTheMap for Emergency Management
OnTheMap for Emergency Management is a web-based tool that integrates real-time natural disaster, workforce, population and housing data.
It provides insight into the demographic and economic conditions of disaster-impacted areas and includes information on historical events, allowing planners to analyze past disasters.
In Miami-Dade and other counties, the tool shows the number of people who work within the county and how that relates to disaster-impacted areas.
Note: Select the image to go to the interactive data tool.
Emergency Management Hub
All these tools can be found on the Census Bureau’s Emergency Management Hub at disasters.census.gov.
Along with data tools, the hub contains America Counts stories, visualizations and pages that allow users to quickly find pertinent information about specific events.
Last hurricane season, we created pages providing key stats about Helene, Milton, Beryl and other named hurricanes.
Related Statistics
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