Nobody, even nearly a year after hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered the Gulf Coast, knows exactly how many people were displaced by the storms.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans, which was hit hard by Katrina, does not know how many of its Catholics are still outside the archdiocese.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has processed more than 2.56 million requests for aid. FEMA limits aid requests to one for each household. A FEMA spokeswoman said the agency has no way of knowing how many people are in each household asking for help; further, the numbers include people who still live on their property, albeit in FEMA-supplied trailers.

An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau information by the Brookings Institution shows that in the New Orleans metropolitan area, the population dropped more than 29 percent overall, though in St. Bernard Parish, a civil entity, the decrease was about 95 percent. In the Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss., area the population decreased by almost 17 percent.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the hurricanes dispersed more than 200,000 students in Louisiana alone to 49 states and the District of Columbia.

As time goes on, the people who fled may choose to put down roots elsewhere. And "elsewhere" may be very far away.

"We've worked with 79, almost 80, individuals since September (2005). ... Nobody really knows the figures because we've found that hurricane survivors tend to move," said Amy Isaacson, disaster response and relief coordinator for the Diocese of Spokane, Wash.

"Eighty-five percent of the people (we've worked with) have family members here, a friend who lives here, or has a connection with a friend," Isaacson told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview. "And we have people who want to get as far away from a hurricane's path as possible."

"We're inland, too, and that's a big selling point," said Greg Cunningham, program director of refugee and immigration services programs for the diocese, which covers the eastern third of Washington state.

"From our perspective, the people here have been extremely welcoming" to hurricane survivors, Cunningham told CNS. He told of "a couple of fellows --- a father and son --- who were first featured in a local newspaper story" and "were met in the street by a total stranger who saw them from the newspaper story and handed them a $100 bill."

Millie Burns, deputy director of programs and program manager for Katrina assistance for Catholic Charities of the East Bay in the Diocese of Oakland, Calif., said that since June the number of open cases of hurricane survivors there has jumped from 162 to 183.

Burns said those displaced by the hurricane now in the Oakland area are "beginning to realize" that life in the East Bay area is much different from what they left behind. "The cost of housing is so, so much more than it used to be," she said. "In this particular area, we are deplorably short on affordable housing --- no Section 8 certificates are available," a reference to a federal housing assistance program. "The cost of housing has just been a total shock," she said.

Housing isn't the only help displaced Americans need. "One of our big concerns right now is the mental health needs of the people we (are) serving have been tremendous," Burns said. "They have all suffered from some degree of post-traumatic stress disorder, a lot of traumatic depression. It takes a lot to be able to recover emotionally and spiritually again."

Edward and Joyce Shanklin know they're not going back again to live in New Orleans. They've found a new home in Fayetteville, Tenn., and at St. Anthony Parish, where parishioners welcomed them with open arms and open hearts.

"They were at church one Sunday morning, and since we are a small parish it was obvious that they were new, and I overheard them tell someone that they were from New Orleans, and of course everybody was talking about Katrina, and I asked them if they needed some place to stay," parishioner Marilyn Haendel told the Tennessee Register, newspaper of the Diocese of Nashville, Tenn.

Haendel and her husband put up the Shanklins rent-free at a house they had lived in while their own home was undergoing renovation.

The day the Shanklins moved into the house, two parishioners brought over a queen-size bed with all the needed bedding and blankets. Others gave them a couch, a television and other household items. One Sunday, Joyce Shanklin said, someone wanted to get her a crockpot but instead they were given a check for $1,000. Another parishioner took them to the Red Cross office so they could get money to buy food, and people went through their closets looking for clothing for them.

"That was the beginning of all the good things that happened to us," said Joyce Shanklin, who was born and raised in New Orleans.

In partial repayment for parishioners' generosity, the Shanklins cooked a Creole supper for the parish that drew a standing-room-only crowd.

Not every story has such a happy ending. "In a disaster situation, anyone with a serious health situation is likely to have their care disrupted," Burns said.

One case in point was a young woman named Yvette, who had been sick before Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast. "She had been moved to a hotel here (in Oakland). We could not move her out of the hotel due to her health," Burns said, adding, "There were days when she was bleeding through the sheets, and the cleaning people would notify the manager and he would call us."

In the end, Burns said, Yvette died. "One of my case managers actually set it up for her parents and church members to begin to do the visiting, to make sure she had adequate care and company and support," she said. "We got pretty close to her. In fact, my case manager and her parents were probably the last people to visit her."

Cunningham said Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Spokane got a grant from Catholic Charities USA to perform the case management work to resettle those displaced by the hurricanes.

"Our program is called refugee and immigration services," he added. "I just never thought our next population would be the southeastern United States --- not Bosnia, the former Soviet republics or Southeast Asia."

---CNS