Brigadier General Michael Walsh, Commander of the Mississippi Valley Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported that $1.2 billion is going directly toward helping small and disadvantaged businesses recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina (0:56)
Brigadier General Michael Walsh, Commander of the Mississippi Valley Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, says the Corps has completed more than one-third of the construction for improvements in the greater New Orleans area following the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Walsh says “the system is stronger and more resilient than prior to Katrina or any other time in history”. (0:40)
By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service
Nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina hit the shores of Louisiana and Mississippi, affecting 90,000 square miles, there are still many people to relocate and solutions to be found. More than 4,000 temporary housing units continue to be in use in Louisiana while the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s housing program formally ended on May 1, 2009.
The Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management held an hearing this morning entitled “Still Post-Katrina: How FEMA decides when housing responsibilities end”.
“The situation we now face was both predictable and predicted. It has been clear from the recent FEMA hearings that those left in disaster housing would be the most vulnerable members of society, who may have had prior difficulties that have been exacerbated by the disaster. While these programs have formally ended, we still have families without a long term housing solution,” said Committee Chair Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).
Ranking member U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) told the subcommittee that it has been “44 months now that families and individuals have been living in travel trailers and hotel rooms and obviously never intended for long time use. But even after all this time, there seems to be no other solutions that has been developed. There has not been a real viable solution developed and implemented by the state and local governments to address long-time affordable housing needs for low income residents.”
The members of the subcommittee agreed that it is not FEMA’s duty to act indefinitely but that it was common sense to not leave people in the streets without any adequate housing.
Responding to the upcoming role of the FEMA for people still living in temporary housing units, David Garratt, Deputy Administrator of the FEMA, pointed out the activities made by the agency since Katrina. Garratt said that the “FEMA conducted the largest temporary housing operation in the history of the country” by providing temporary housing to more than 143,000 families across the Gulf Coast and more than $7.8 billion in housing and other needs assistance to around 2.4 million individuals.
However, Garratt said that the FEMA has provided long term housing units to individuals affected by Katrina but approximately 1,400 have refused to participate in those relocations and decided to stay in their temporary housing units which are often located near their home or even on their lots. These people still do not know whether or not their trailers will be taken away from them by the FEMA when its housing program ends.
By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service
Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, Reverend Charles E. Jenkins, talks about his personal experience after Hurricane Katrina. (0:56)
The lack of disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina were “a failure of the public sector,” said Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) in a hearing. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee met to discuss how disaster relief went after hurricanes Ike and Gustav.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said that while there were major improvements in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), some aspects of the response were not good enough. She said that 1,000 of the poorest citizens were put on buses with no idea where they were going before Hurricane Gustav hit. She said that FEMA and the Red Cross were unprepared for a “large-scale disaster.”
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said that preparations for Hurricane Gustav were an improvement on Hurricane Katrina. She said that 97.5 percent of the population evacuated New Orleans this year while only around 90 percent were evacuated before Katrina. He also said that New Orleans was repopulated only four days after the disaster. However, he did mention that the city ran out of supplies that FEMA was supposed to provide including water and food. He said the United States was still playing “Russian roulette” with the lives of its citizens in the New Orleans region.
Deputy FEMA administrator Harvey Johnson said that Hurricanes Gustav and Ike posed “a worst nightmare scenario.” Johnson said the response by FEMA as well as state governments restored the confidence of U.S. citizens in disaster relief.
At a hearing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) delivery of relief donations, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) says FEMA must move away from stubborn requests and must proactively identify problems on the ground. Landrieu says FEMA should be more collaborative and that Americans deserve a better FEMA. (0:49)
Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina, the government is still discovering critical governmental flaws, according to Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) at a hearing before the Joint Homeland Security Committee to discuss the delivery of donated goods to catastrophe survivors. Thompson said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not properly manage and distribute the donated supplies after Hurricane Katrina. (more…)
At a hearing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) post-catastrophe housing needs, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) says that the Homeland Security Committee called 325 witnesses, 838 000 pages of documentation and 22 public hearings after Hurricane Katrina. She says the government thought it was a good foundation to give FEMA a head start to come up with strategies to implement for post-catastrophe housing but all that FEMA produced was a late report with blank pages. (1:09)
At a hearing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) post-catastrophe housing planning, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) says that it is hard not to conclude that someone instructed details not to be filled in the report. Landrieu says the law required FEMA in clear terms to come up with strategies but FEMA merely turned in a late report with blank paper. (0:46)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) submitted a strategy plan which was a year overdue to the Disaster Recovery Subcommittee, according to Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.). Landrieu added that not only was the strategy late but key annexes of the report, required by Congress, were nothing but blank pages. (more…)
