Free Republic

BEAUMONT, Texas -- Thousands of people who received money from the federal government after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma might be asked to give it back. The Federal Emergency Management Agency started sending letters last week asking people to return money they received in error.

By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer LAFITTE, La. - Once the salt water is in your veins, Louisiana's coastal folk say, it's hard to give up the lifestyle of moonlit shrimping trips, the town "fais do-do" dances and afternoons spent on the bayous angling for catfish. But since last year's catastrophic hurricanes, this swampy land defined by Cajuns, cypress and tupelo gum forests, bayou-side saloons and, more recently, subdivisions may have become too vulnerable for that lifestyle to continue. Even before the devastation caused by Katrina, Louisiana's swampy coast had been sinking by as much as 2 inches a...

The raging hurricanes and floods last year haven't prompted a run on flood insurance. A survey by the large insurer, Chubb Group, finds that only 8 percent of 700 queried homeowners saw the destruction of Katrina and Rita as motivation to get some insurance for their home. Only 14 percent of the total group has flood insurance.

Jeanerette lawmaker says he, legislators failed hurricane victims Acadiana bureau State Rep. Troy Hebert, D-Jeanerette, is spending his campaign fund money to spread the word that he and fellow legislators failed the victims of Hurricane Rita. In comments Thursday, he said state government has focused on Hurricane Katrina almost exclusively, and the reasons might have more to do with voter base than need. Hebert recently took out a large newspaper ad listing “meaningful legislation that the governor and Legislature passed to help Hurricane Rita victims.” That heading is followed by a numbered column of five blank lines. The ad went...

Coastal Landscape Battles Weather to Protect Mainland taking on the might and fury of these storms are the state’s barrier islands and coastal wetlands — a fragile, yet proven, line of defense. “Barrier islands and marshes can’t stop the full force of a category 4 or 5 hurricane,” says Jack Kindinger, associate director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Florida Integrated Science Center. “But because these natural buffers reduce the effects of daily wave action and winter storms on shorelines and levees, a coast protected by wetlands will fare better in a storm of any size.” Marshes Soak Up...

Just hours after the Associated Press (AP) ‘shocked‘ New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin yesterday by showing him video of a FEMA briefing during Hurricane Katrina in which government officials speculate about the impact of the expected Category 5 storm, the AP has shown the mayor a second “alarming and disgusting” video. The first video shows President George Bush, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff and then-FEMA Director Michael Brown, among others, dealing with how to respond to the developing disaster, and what to make of inconsistent reports from New Orleans about the condition of the Lake Pontchatrain levees. The second video,...

According to former FEMA Director Michael Brown the White House knew New Orleans’ levees were breached the day Hurricane Katrina hit. Brown says FEMA was on top of the problem, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Is former FEMA boss Michael Brown being made a scapegoat for the sluggish response to Katrina?

WASHINGTON — In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Federal Emergency Management Agency workers commandeered gasoline from a company trying to restore telephone service to the hurricane-ravaged New Orleans area, a Senate investigative panel found. The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Monday released an e-mail obtained from Cox Louisiana Telecom LLC. The company was trying to restore service to 85,000 customers, according to Kay Jackson, director of regulatory affairs. She complained about FEMA to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. “Our efforts to get our telecommunications network back up and running is being severely hampered by FEMA,” Jackson wrote....

Due to the end of the FEMA-funded sheltering, the State of Louisiana is opening emergency shelters and has established a toll free number to assist hurricane victims who will be evicted by FEMA from motels and hotels on Feb. 7. “I have instructed my state agencies, led by the Department of Social Services, to immediately stand up emergency shelters for those who are ineligible for additional FEMA housing assistance and face eviction. Meanwhile the state will continue to work on permanent solutions for their families.” Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said in making the announcement today. “I am troubled that FEMA...

Gov. Kathleen Blanco/Special Session of the Legislature: Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, distinguished members of the legislature, Mayor Nagin, parish presidents, council members, and distinguished guests: it is an honor to be here in New Orleans tonight. Let me begin by reflecting upon the contributions of Coretta Scott King, a woman who stood for the dignity of all humanity. Her life will be celebrated in Atlanta tomorrow. Her courage reminds us that even in the darkest hours, there is a great hope for the future. My husband, Raymond, and I extend our condolences to the King family. Louisiana has weathered the...

http://theadvertiser.gns.gannettonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/DG/20060205/SPECIALSECTION0603/602280303/0/LAFUTURE Protecting South Louisiana from future hurricanes will require adding new levees, restoring wetlands and rebuilding barrier islands and reefs, scientists and state officials say. But those remedies will take time, money and political will. "The kind of mobilization or general consensus that is being drummed up for the levees in New Orleans is what we need for coastal restoration, because people need to make a mental connection with coastal restoration and hurricane protection," said Rusty Gaude, a Louisiana fisheries Sea Grant agent for Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes.

http://www.wafb.com/global/story.asp?s=4456775&ClientType=Printable Saturday at the Republican State Central Committee Meeting, Republicans said now is the opportunity for a golden new era, saying their party's momentum picked up significantly long before Hurricane Katrina displaced thousands of Democratic voters across the country and destroyed its fundraising base in New Orleans. Republicans point to 2004 when voters here help re-elect President Bush, and voted in Louisiana's first Republican U.S. Senator since reconstruction. For those Republicans packed inside the state central meeting, the theme for 2006 appears to be one of second victories, and strong ones at that. The entire Louisiana GOP state central committe,...

LAKE CHARLES, La. -- The city of Lake Charles will open the Civic Center as an emergency shelter if the Federal Emergency Management Agency puts out hundreds of Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims from area hotels and motels by a Feb. 13 deadline. FEMA extended the deadline for evacuees to be out of their rooms by six days, from Feb. 7 to Feb. 13. Those who wanted to remain after Feb. 7 had to call FEMA by Jan. 30 to receive an authorization code that would extend their stay. FEMA has said it won't pay for rooms after Feb. 13....

In the chaos that followed the worst natural disaster in American history, a forensic investigation has been taking place to find out what went wrong and why. The BBC's Horizon programme has spoken to the scientists who are now confronting the real possibility that New Orleans may be the first of many cities worldwide to face extinction. Modern day New Orleans was a city that defied the odds. Built on a mosquito infested swamp squashed between two vast bodies of water in what is essentially a bowl, its very existence seemed proof of the triumph of engineering over nature. But...

MCALLEN, Texas -- A tour company has been charged with conspiracy and other crimes in the deaths of 23 nursing home residents whose bus caught fire and exploded as they were trying to flee Hurricane Rita. In an indictment unsealed Wednesday, Global Limo, Inc., and owner James H. Maples are accused of conspiring to falsify driver time records and failing to inspect the company's bus fleet to make sure the buses were safe. Maples, 65, was arrested Wednesday at his McAllen home. He was scheduled to appear before a U.S. magistrate Wednesday afternoon. The bus caught fire Sept. 23 on...

New Orleans waits. While some heroic efforts at rebuilding are taking place, hundreds of thousands of residents have put their lives on hold until they know what the government's next steps will be, leaving the shells of their houses as placeholders. But the Bush administration has now rejected the most broadly supported plan for rebuilding communities while offering nothing to take its place. It has been five months since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and for many the norm is still the claustrophobic new reality of tiny trailers and multiple families crammed into single apartments. Louisiana is trying. You...

Don't leave us to foreclosure Sunday, January 29, 2006 Here in a community full of ruined homes, it takes no imagination to predict an epidemic of foreclosures that could devastate families, cripple the recovery of greater New Orleans and strain the nation's economy. If your flood insurance payout isn't nearly enough to cover your mortgage, you wonder if you'll have to abandon your unlivable home. If you look down the block at a dozen other damaged houses and know that your neighbors are in the same bind, you understand the fear of losing your neighborhood to blight. If you travel...

Political Horizons for Jan. 29 Baker’s relief bill deserves try By JOHN LAPLANTE Published: Jan 29, 2006 Ford to City: Drop Dead,” a legendary headline screamed in 1975, when a president refused to bail out New York City from financial disaster. Change the president and the locale, and Louisiana hurricane victims might be forgiven for thinking the same thing. After hemming and hawing for months about U.S. Rep. Richard Baker’s home-buyout bill, and never really saying what he had against it, Bush brushed it aside last week. Only after aides revealed his opposition did Bush grant a one-paragraph explanation. It...

Out of touch with our reality Our Views By OPINION PAGE STAFF Published: Jan 29, 2006 Mr. President, we’re grateful for every dollar of aid we get, from private or public sources. But your statement of Thursday is simply out of touch with reality in Louisiana today. “I want to remind the people in that part of the world, $85 billion is a lot.” In the abstract, sure. It’s a lot of money. But as a senatorial inspection group found the other day, there has not been anywhere near $85 billion worth of progress. For one thing, that money isn’t...