You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.

2.7 million

Hurricane Irma is pummeling Florida, leaving about 2.7 million without power as of 5:30 p.m. yesterday. The storm is hitting Florida’s western coast where there are many assisted living facilities, many areas where a substantial percentage of people who live in mobile homes or below the poverty line, or where there are large concentrations of migrant workers. [ABC News, FiveThirtyEight]

8.1

Strength of an earthquake that hit about 60 miles off the coast of Mexico late Thursday, the largest in the region in decades. An estimated fifty million Mexicans felt the earthquake, and the death toll has risen to 91. [The Los Angeles Times, Reuters]

6

Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is investigating Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, has notified the White House he will potentially want to question six current and former officials who were possibly witnesses to the events in question: Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, Hope Hicks, Don McGahn, James Burnham and Josh Raffel. [The Washington Post]

72 percent

The U.S. Asian population is growing faster than any other U.S. racial or ethnic group, climbing 72 percent between 2000 and 2015 according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. Asians Americans are projected to eclipse Hispanic Americans in 2055 to become the largest immigrant group in the country. [Pew Research Center]

450,000 people

The Houston area is only just reckoning with the impact of Hurricane Harvey. Still 70,000 people are without water and another 380,000 need to boil water because their supply may have been compromised. While many residents do not have flood insurance and will soon have to rebuild their homes, FEMA officials said they will contribute a maximum of $33,000 per home. [Reuters]

$97 million

The cost in U.S. dollars of a plebiscite vote in Australia on a non-binding resolution that would change the country’s marriage laws to include same-sex marriage. The cost is just one reason that some question the point of a national vote when it will not have any effect, and Parliament can easily vote on the subject without needed to spur up a divisive and marginalizing political campaign. [BBC]

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