May 24, 2007

News Articles

La. aid discrepancy an issue of wind, water
The massive federally funded program for rebuilding hurricane-damaged Louisiana homes is short nearly $3 billion largely because state officials are compensating thousands of homeowners who were not originally supposed to benefit, according to an analysis by the Bush administration. The money was supposed to pay for rebuilding flooded homes but not those damaged by wind, said federal officials familiar with the negotiations between the administration and the state officials who designed the program, reports The Washington Post. State officials responded that it is unfair to compensate some owners but not others, depending on which hurricane phenomenon wrecked their home.

See Washington Post article

Jeff lets $10 million in post-storm contracts
As the days tick toward the 2007 hurricane season, Jefferson Parish, La. administrators have busied themselves with publicity campaigns, evacuation plans and emergency response techniques, reports The Times-Picayune. Amid this focus on preparing for disaster, the Parish Council decided Wednesday to address the possible aftermath. The council unanimously sanctioned spending $10.1 million on eight contracts to clean up the parish in the wake of a hurricane. Such a preemptive move has become a habit for the council since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 exposed major shortcomings in the local government's immediate response to widespread damage, Councilman John Young said. Recovery and repair contracts were awarded without a full review process.

See Times-Picayune article

Offshore oil and hurricanes: Deeper may mean riskier
As oil companies working in the Gulf of Mexico prepare for an active hurricane season, experts say more drilling in deeper waters farther out to sea has made the United States more vulnerable to energy disruptions, reports Reuters. Experts say the quest for oil and natural gas in deeper waters has put more drilling rigs, producing platforms and pipelines in the path of storms intensified by the warm "loop current" in the middle of the Gulf. In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita knocked out a quarter of U.S. crude and fuel production, toppling offshore platforms, destroying undersea pipelines, flooding coastal refineries and sending energy prices to then-record highs.

See Reuters article

Hancock County accepts cottages
Hancock County became the first coastal Mississippi county on Wednesday to accept cottages on wheels as a way to get people out of FEMA travel trailers nearly 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, reports The (Biloxi) Sun Herald. The first version of the cottages, which are actually 400-square-foot, wheeled modular homes, is expected to begin rolling into Mississippi next month. A second, larger version that has two or three bedrooms will follow. Between 4,500 and 6,000 homes eventually will be distributed in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties.

See Sun Herald article

Key senators reject proposal for stand-alone FEMA
Two key senators said Tuesday it would be a terrible mistake for Congress to take up legislation again that would remove the Federal Emergency Management Agency from the Homeland Security Department, saying reforms passed into law last year are showing improvements in the government's ability to deal with disasters. GovernmentExecutive.com reports that Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, were unified during a hearing in their opposition to another major overhaul of FEMA. FEMA lost its Cabinet-level status in 2002 when Congress moved it into the Homeland Security Department.

See GovernmentExecutive.com article

Katrina billboard takes aim at 'big insurance'
A bloc of Mississippi attorneys brought the battle over Hurricane Katrina damage to State Farm Insurance Cos.' Backyard, reports The (Bloomington, Ill.) Pantagraph. The Scruggs Katrina Group, which is involved in numerous lawsuits against insurers, purchased ad space along Veterans Parkway that reads "Katrina only destroyed homes. Big insurance has destroyed hope." State Farm spokesman Fraser Engerman called the ad a public relations stunt from a law firm stinging from the loss of a multimillion-dollar settlement.

See Pantagraph article

Government Data

Federal Procurement Data System
The Federal Procurement Data System posted its latest information on hurricane-related contract awards. The system has been updated to include Defense Department and FEMA contracts. The total spent on post-Katrina contracts as of May 23 stands at $15.5 billion.

FPDS Katrina contracts