Hancock County to get FEMA full time
By J.R. WELSH
,baybureau@aol.com
More than two years after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA is assigning a full-time team to Hancock County.
More than two years after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA is assigning a full-time team to Hancock County.
FEMA strayed from good practices when it gave Mississippi the majority of a $400 million pilot program to house Hurricane Katrina victims in cottages rather than travel trailers, according to the Government Accountability Office.
President Bush has visited South Mississippi 15 times since Aug. 29, 2005.
Comment on this storyWhen the names of Katrina victims were read this past Aug. 29 on the Town Green in Biloxi, Judy Collins was honored as a victim of the storm, but her husband, William Collins, was not.
Mississippi trial lawyer Richard Scruggs has asked a federal judge to throw out a charge accusing him of criminal contempt in a dispute related to insurance claims after Hurricane Katrina.
On the eve of today's House vote, a bill that would expand the federal flood-insurance program to include wind damage drew a Bush administration veto threat.
It has been scarcely more than two years since hurricane winds and waters devastated large swaths of this town. But it seems like an eternity to many residents weary of looking at crashed and collapsed houses still lining the streets.
Air-quality tests are expected to begin late next month on government-issued trailers in Mississippi as federal officials probe concerns that the temporary homes for disaster victims are contaminated by a carcinogen.
Lawmakers urged the Mississippi Development Authority on Monday to extend its public comment period for a proposal to divert $600 million from a Hurricane Katrina housing fund to a state port restoration project.
The potential shortfall in the state-run program meant to help hurricane-affected homeowners could reach between $5.6 billion and $6.6 billion, roughly $1 billion more than the state's last estimated range a month ago.
Numerous recent national and regional media reports and opinions stop just short of saying Mississippi has stolen federal Katrina-recovery dollars from Louisiana.
NEW ORLEANS - It's more carpentry, painting and house-gutting - along with more cerebral work - for college students hitting the Gulf Coast for another spring break amid the devastation from the 2005 hurricanes, Katrina and Rita.
An Illinois woman mourns her two young daughters, swept to their deaths in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. It's a tragic and terrifying story. It's also a lie. An Alabama woman applies for disaster aid for hurricane damage. She files 28 claims for addresses in four states. It's all a sham. Two California men help stage Internet auctions designed to help Katrina relief organizations. Those, too, are bogus.
Last weekend I wrote about a volunteer organization that restores photos damaged in natural disasters.
The Pulitzer citation