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Who Will Be Hit Hardest by Climate Change? |
Katrina dispersed three-quarters of New Orleans' pre-hurricane population of about 460,000 people, and today it's a city of about 250,000. Nagin suggested that Louisiana and federal officials would prefer the city remain smaller.
He said the city is struggling to deliver services and rebuild with a quarter of its former municipal budget. The federal and state aid the city has received is inadequate and comes with too many rules, he said.
“We are being strangled, and they're using the money to set local policies to try to take control of the city to do things that they had in mind all along, and that's to shrink the footprint, get a bunch of developers in the city, and try to do things in a different way,” Nagin said.
“We're not going to let that happen. They're going to give us our money, and we're going to rebuild this city.”
Aug 17 15:45
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Blanco: No quick fixes for insurance woes On the Web:
Katrina Insurance Company Report Card |
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Trent Lott says he's disappointed with the slow pace that hundreds of insurance lawsuits are being handled nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina.
Speaking in his hometown of Pascagoula on Thursday, Lott, R-Miss., said the tempo could be hindering reconstruction efforts across the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The former Senate majority leader -- who has his own lawsuit pending -- also said he's shocked that insurance companies are not covered by federal antitrust laws. He said companies now could “actually collude” with each other when handling claims.
“That has caused me a great deal of concern. I think we need to take a look at that,” Lott said during a news conference before a Republican women's luncheon at Pascagoula's LaFont Inn.
Lott's beach-side home was destroyed by Katrina last Aug. 29, and he sued State Farm Insurance Co. over a claim dispute. His case is among the next group of lawsuits scheduled to be heard in federal court early next year.
“I'll be OK if I don't get a nickel, if I can in some way contribute to all these other people getting recovery,” Lott said.
Thousands of homeowners have sued their insurers in south Mississippi, and the first case went to trial last month.
U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. ruled in that case this week that a Pascagoula couple, Paul and Julie Leonard, cannot collect damages from storm surge caused by Katrina because Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.'s policies do not cover wind-driven water damage.
Senter said the Leonards could be compensated for damage that they could prove was caused by high winds. The couple did not have flood insurance.
Lott said his own case will be substantially different from the Leonards because he had flood insurance. Lott, who has not started to rebuild, said his case is “more based on the claim that we had wind damage and water surge damage.”
Lott said before he was first elected to the U.S. House in 1972, he was a defense attorney for insurance companies, including State Farm. On Thursday, he said State Farm's contention that his house had no wind damage in Katrina is “not credible.”
“The same company, State Farm, had paid me twice since 1984 for wind damage from hurricanes half the velocity of this one,” he said.
Lott said he was “infuriated” by the company's handling of his Katrina claim.
Lott's attorney in the insurance lawsuit is his brother-in-law, Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who made millions by suing tobacco companies in the 1990s. Scruggs' legal team represents about 3,000 policyholders on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in post-Katrina insurance lawsuits.
“I never thought I'd be a plaintiff, and I never thought my brother-in-law would be my lawyer,” said Lott, who in the past has publicly called for limits on lawsuits.
In 2002, Lott said he had discouraged the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from warning its members about doing business in Mississippi because of what the group said were large verdicts handed down by juries in civil trials. The chamber was pushing for “tort reform,” or limits on lawsuits.
Despite trying to dampen a public message he said could harm his state, Lott also said in 2002: “I'm among many Mississippi citizens who believe tort reform is needed.”
Aug 19 15:17
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Katrina recovery groups say Miss. tardy on low-income housing
Thousands, including refugees, housed in trailers; others wait |
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) -- As homeowners have started rebuilding and repairing since Hurricane Katrina hit nearly a year ago, they've been learning a new vocabulary and have been bombarded with recommendations.
In many cases, the new or rebuilt structures will be higher than they were before Katrina because of changes in a county's or city's flood plain ordinance.
Homeowners also are seeing changes in the construction of their homes, especially those along beachfronts and near areas designated “velocity zones,” which are vulnerable to a hurricane's high winds.
There also are more stringent building regulations modeled after the International Building Code and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's coastal construction regulations, which can add to the price of rebuilding or repairing.
And the choices for construction are as varied as the shells on the beach. One program that has received attention is the development of “Hurricane Homes” and “Katrina Cottages,” small, modular homes that had been touted as a better and cheaper alternative to the FEMA trailers that now dot the landscape along the Coast from Waveland east to Bayou Cumbest.
The wooden frame structures range in size from 360 to 960 square feet and can sleep four people. The buildings are self-contained and range in price from $45,000 to $90,000 or more, depending on the manufacturer and the size.
For people rebuilding or repairing their homes, the range of building materials has expanded past the traditional wood, brick and mortar.
This includes using plastic foam forms that are filled with concrete to make them stronger and more wind resistant. The exterior of the house can be covered with siding or bricks.
The interior also allows for a selection materials for the walls.
Another system uses plastic foam between sections of plywood that are then attached to the normal wall studs.
Building Contractor Mark Cauley of 3-D Custom Homes said some homeowners have talked about using innovative materials.
Cauley, former building official with the Jackson County Planning Department, said the type and cost of construction for a house depends on the size and type of home. The cost can run from $80 to $140 per square foot depending on the nature of the house, he said.
Cauley said he takes the coastal and international codes a step further by using “go bolts,” long bolts that are set in the foundation and used to secure the frame to the house. The bolts are used in conjunction with hurricane straps and other material traditionally used to secure homes in high wind areas.
In some cases, he said, the bolts are also used in repairing storm-damaged homes. Sometimes, he said, a house will not require a total renovation, based on the amount of damage.
“If there is some question,” he said, “we may have to get an engineer involved.”
One issue that many homeowners will face regardless if they build or repair is having to elevate their home above what is called “base flood elevation.”
The base flood elevation is the land elevation based on a 100-year flood. Many homeowners living in areas designated as flood plains will be required to elevate their homes above the base flood elevation to continue to qualify for flood insurance.
“Elevation is still a problem everywhere,” said Jackson County Planning Director Michele Coats. “The advisory base flood elevation now extends further inland than the (previous) flood zone.”
New flood insurance rate maps are expected to come out in November.
Pascagoula Building Official Steve Mitchell said his office has not had many complaints about the base flood elevations since they went into effect on June 1.
“But we've got some learning curve issues,” he said, pointing out that adjustments have to be made for electrical circuits, outdoor air conditioning condenser unit heights and plumbing.
There are two ways of elevating a house. One is to elevate the floor of the house. The other is to elevate the entire house.
Raising the floor is possible in some cases, Mitchell said.
He said floors have been elevated in some local homes by pouring a concrete “cap slab” and shortening the interior studs.
“As long as the ceiling stays at seven feet, it can be done,” he said. “But (raising the floor elevation) is something that is possible only in certain cases. Where it can be done, it was good.”
Elevating the entire house, Mitchell said, can run from $30,000 to $60,000 to bring the structure into compliance with elevation regulations.
The Mississippi Development Authority is sponsoring a program that provides $30,000 grants to elevate homes.
Mitchell said there are additional grant programs from FEMA. One is offered to people who have flood insurance and need to comply with the flood ordinance elevation.
There is no limit on FEMA's Hazard Mitigation grant, but the agency requires the homeowner to provide match funds. The city, Mitchell said, is providing the match for the homeowner through community development block grant funds. He said people should consider elevating their homes as soon as possible to avoid further risk of flood damage.
Ronnie Harper, whose family has been in the house moving and elevation business for more than 50 years, said the cost of elevating a house and putting on a new foundation and possibly installing a second floor costs from $15 to $26 per square foot.
He said homes on concrete foundations can be elevated by breaking the building from the foundation, elevating it and installing a new floor.
“If it's not a crowded time, it takes about 30 to 45 days (to elevate a house),” he said. “Preparation is the whole key and the most time consuming task of the job.”
Harper said his company was busy before the storm “and it's increased tenfold since the storm.
“We will be happy when we have taken care of everybody and gotten back to a normal pace,” he said.
Aug 20 12:16
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Katrina's Lessons, Pt. 2: Would FEMA Bungle Another Disaster? |
While hundreds of thousands of people displaced from the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina have established new lives in faraway places throughout the country, there are thousands more for whom home is a white box.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency says more than 73,000 of its trailers are occupied by hurricane victims in Louisiana, and more than 32,000 in Mississippi. The Louisiana figure includes victims of Hurricane Rita, which struck in September 2005.
The trailers are provided to eligible storm victims for 18 months.
While the trailers and mobile homes are designed to help hurricane victims get back on their feet, they may be equally infamous for televised images of enormous stretches of trailers that went unused after the storm, and for other snags.
A year after Katrina, there remain nearly 10,000 trailers stored near the airport in Hope, Ark., waiting to be sent to the Gulf Coast to help storm victims.
In Mississippi, FEMA told hundreds of families in trailers that they would have to move out within 30 days after suspecting they were ineligible for the assistance, then backpedaled in favor of individual interviews with the families.
And in St. Bernard Parish, La., which adjoins New Orleans, 1,200 families are still waiting to get into trailers that need utility hookups or other services, and 400 more families have no trailers at all.
“They don't know what's going to happen day to day,” said Donald Balgio, whose elderly parents have been slogging through paperwork in hopes of getting a trailer. “Nobody knows what to do.”
FEMA has said it understands the frustrations of those families but points the enormous number of people it has helped since Katrina -- more than 1 million households have received housing aid and other assistance.
Aug 18 16:47
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Katrina Lessons – One Year Later, Talk About Katrina Poverty Was
Just That, Talk |
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Low-income women have been slow to return to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina and those who have returned are not benefiting from the recovering city's construction labor market, a report released Friday said.
“Those who have managed to get back are clearly struggling,” Avis Jones-DeWeever, director of the Washington-based Institute for Women's Policy Research, said at a news conference in front of City Hall.
She cited a quadruple increase in a government-sponsored food program in the metropolitan area as evidence of the hard times for many women in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
Gleaning its findings from recent U.S. Census and other government data, the report said the number of single mothers in the area has dropped from 10 percent before Katrina to about 6 percent now.
The report also said the number of low-income female-led households dropped from 35 percent before the storm to 18 percent after.
The report said women in Louisiana earned less than men and had fewer opportunities than men before Katrina, and that their plight will be worsened with the unequal playing field that was created after the storm.
One way of changing this would be for women to be hired in the construction fields, new City Council woman Shelley Midura said.
“Women can break Sheetrock, women can wire homes, and women can drive trucks,” Midura said. “These are good-paying jobs.”
Beth Willinger of Tulane University's Center for Research on Women said the labor force needs to be “totally integrated” both in terms of gender and race.
“But first we need to bring our women home,” she said.
Jones-DeWeever was joined by several prominent women, including Midura and state Rep. Karen Carter, a Democrat and a contender in a Nov. 7 congressional race for the seat of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, who is running for re-election.
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