Hurricane Katrina Polls

Fed Response to Katrina Gets Thumbs Down

Survey of 1,000 Adults

September 2-3, 2005

Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina
Excellent	12%
Good	16%
Fair	25%
Poor	45%
RasmussenReports.com

September 4, 2005--Just 28% of Americans give say that the federal government has done a good or an excellent job responding to Hurricane Katrina. Another 25% say the government has done a fair job while 45% say poor.

Interest in the story is extraordinarily high. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Americans say they are closely following news stories about the tragedy, including 59% who are following it "very closely."

Forty-seven percent (47%) have made a financial contribution to help the victims of the disaster. Seventy-eight percent (78%) have said a prayer for them.

Eighty-five percent (85%) say that the "disaster in New Orleans and surrounding areas [will] have a major impact on the U.S. economy. Consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in more than two years.

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Even among Republicans, there are significant doubts about the federal response to Katrina. Just 47% of those in President Bush's party say the federal response has been good or excellent. Fifty-one percent say fair or poor.

In terms of supporting the victims with financial contribution and/or prayer, there is little partisan difference.

Demographic details available for Premium Members.

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Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.

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The telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports September 2-3, 2005. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. 37% of survey respondents were Republican, 37% Democrat, and 26% unaffiliated (see Methodology)