Representative Emile "Peppi" Bruneau District 94 larep094@legis.state.la.us

HURRICANE KATRINA/RITA RECOVERY UPDATE
NOVEMBER 2, 2005

Recovery Status & Public Safety

A subpoena ordering the Central Louisiana chapter of the American Red Cross to turn over the names of shelter evacuees for criminal background checks has been stopped by a U.S. District judge. The argument goes to federal court Nov. 18 and the Rapides Parish District Attorney says he will file a motion to have the issue sent back to the district court.

Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc said the talk that money spent on repairing the Superdome will reduce the amount of money available for so-called “people” recovery efforts is not true. LeBlanc pointed out that money to repair the dome will come from three funding sources, all of which are earmarked for facility repair and replacement and those funds cannot be used for other kinds of recovery efforts. He said insurance covers property damage up to a limit of $500 million, with a $25 million deductible. Once the $25 million deductible is expended, repair and replacement funds for all facility projects will be drawn from the insurance fund. FEMA will pay 90 cents on the dollar that the state spends on facility repairs beyond the insurance limit. The deductible is also eligible for reimbursement from FEMA.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin testified Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, urging the support of Congress for rebuilding safe levees, reconstructing the city’s water and sewer system, repairing and restoring the transportation system and tax incentives for businesses and residents to return to the area.

Secretary of State Al Ater is pushing changes in Louisiana’s election laws at the special session. He wants to change the state’s purge laws, which assume voters have moved elsewhere when they miss an election and a notification card sent to their home is undeliverable. He also wants Congress to act quickly on a measure that would let displaced hurricane victims vote absentee in their home communities through the 2008 election.

 Members of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security committee expressed concern Wednesday that the repairs to New Orleans’ levees may be insufficient to protect returning residents from high tides, let alone another hurricane. Experts investigating the status of the levees told the senators that it appears the repairs have been done with little or no engineering guidance and perhaps substandard materials.

New Orleans area parks could be closed for months as the $70 million worth of repairs and cleanup continues. New Orleans City Park, Fort Pike, Fontainebleau, Fairview-Riverside, Grand Isle, St. Bernard and Bayou Segnette all sustained storm damage.

State health officials admit that the numbers released regarding bodies recovered post-Katrina are not an official death count. While state health officials are using an Oct. 1 cutoff date in determining an official Katrina-related death for people who evacuated the New Orleans area, some parish coroner offices’ numbers dealing with Katrina evacuees are not included in the state numbers. Out-of-state body counts - included those reported in Houston - are also not included. Other bodies received by the state have now been determined to non-Katrina related deaths.

The Orleans parish coroner, who is overseeing autopsies for the state, says the bodies recovered from a nursing home and a hospital after Katrina are too badly decomposed to determine if any of the victims were murdered or euthanized. Toxicology reports are still pending. The attorney general’s office is investigating the deaths at St. Rita’s Nursing Home and Memorial Medical Center.

While over 500 autopsies have been completed on bodies recovered following Hurricane Katrina, only three or four have been typed and released to families. The problem is there is only one woman in Slidell typing them up. Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard, in charge of the autopsies at the St. Gabriel morgue, says his staff has been cut by one-third since Katrina and the state has yet to come through with needed equipment and people to speed up the process. DHH says it was unaware of the problem.

Public defender offices in hurricane-impacted parishes are struggling. With the offices mostly dependent on traffic fines for their funding and traffic courts shut down in September, Jefferson Parish public defenders are facing the loss of half their salaries in a couple of weeks. In Orleans there have already been layoffs. Plaquemines Parish lost 97% of its public defender revenue in September. St. Tammany and Washington parishes lost 92%. In St. Bernard the situation is even more bleak. Case files and equipment were destroyed and there are few residents even in the parish.

The St. Bernard Parish Council is investigating reports that administrators at Chalmette Medical Center abandoned doctors, nurses and patients after the top brass were evacuated after Katrina.

Entergy officials are asking residents waiting on gas service to make sure the company has a working, updated phone number for them. The company has set up a automated phone service to notify customers when gas service is available.

St. Tammany Parish has launched a new tv program to keep residents informed about local hurricane recovery efforts. “Northshore News” airs daily at 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. on the government access Channel 10 on cable tv.

Evacuees at the Northshore Harbor Center in Slidell can stay in the shelter until the Red Cross finds alternative housing for them. The commitment comes after FEMA wrongly informed the parish that there were no evacuees in the shelter and support services - like showers - could be dismantled.

Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world’s second largest reinsurer, says the insurance industry could face more than $20 billion in claims from Rita and Wilma. Rita claims are now estimated above $10 billion, mostly because of damage to offshore oil installations. Katrina cost the insurance industry between $40 billion and $60 billion - the most costly single-day event in history.

 The date has been set for Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall to visit New Orleans. The two will spend a few hours in the city Friday afternoon. They may visit a levee and a school.

Signs of Recovery

 For the first time since Katrina hit, the Social Security Administration will open its West Bank office Thursday. It is the agency’s first New Orleans office to resume operations since the storm. The office is located at 115 Terry Parkway in Terrytown.

The Renaissance Arts Hotel in the arts district has reopened.

Community Coffee will celebrate the reopening of its original CC’s Coffee House on Magazine Street Friday. Proceeds from the event, scheduled from 7 a.m. to noon, will benefit the reconstruction of hurricane-impacted schools. CC’s will serve free coffee and take job applications for the over 150 available positions with the company.

Cork & Bottle Fine Wines has reopened on Orleans Avenue.

The Shaw Group will announce tomorrow a total cash contribution of $1 million from the company and its employees to support recovery and relief efforts.

Housing, Education & Other Assistance Issues

The Lafayette City-Parish Council held a special meeting yesterday and passed a resolution urging FEMA to seek alternative housing to trailer cities in their parish. St. Landry, Tangipahoa, St. Martin and Iberia parishes have all passed similar resolutions. FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said the agency has no plans to go against the wishes of local governments.

Although FEMA trailers weren’t supposed to arrive at Acadiana Park Campground until Nov. 13, trailers began arriving yesterday. The park was only to be used if FEMA exhausted all other sites, those not in floodplains. Lafayette City-Parish officials signed a $93,600 contract with FEMA on Oct. 6 for a six month lease of 40 pads. At $13 per night per camp site, the U.S. government has already paid $13,250 for the unused slots.

The Rapides Parish School System says it is out more than $3 million in storm-related expenses but the numbers change every day. They, like so many others, they are waiting to see how much of the tab FEMA will pick up and how much will be covered by state and federal programs. The district has 2000 new students, hired 32 new teachers and several schools acted as shelters. Decontamination of schools used as shelters cost $15,000; facility damage and debris cleanup is expected to be around $200,000. Additionally, they say they need to hire 11 more teachers. At this time, they are hoping FEMA will come up with $1.1 million.
FEMA has agreed to limit the number of trailers on home sites in Tangipahoa Parish. Parish officials said one home site had five trailers and this creates a fire hazard and causes problems for the sewer system. The number that will be placed on a home site was not stated.

The Ascension Parish School Board says it will follow BESE recommendations and not require passage of the LEAP test for promotion to the next grade. Students will have to meet all other criteria for promotion and must attend and “demonstrate a good or excellent effort in summer school” and complete the LEAP retest in the subject failed.
HUD is providing $5 million to universities that contribute to the rebuilding of hurricane-impacted Gulf Coast communities. $2 million will got to architecture schools whose faculty and students work with communities to rebuild. The rest of the money is earmarked for historically black schools to pay for schools to work with storm-damaged cities and supply services such as nursing, counseling or legal work.

New Orleans public school employees on forced disaster leave must re-enroll by Nov. 18 if they want to continue their health insurance coverage under a catastrophic health insurance plan. Employees should call 866-896-3570 by the deadline or their benefits will expire Nov. 30.

183 New Orleans tenants facing eviction are entitled to have court hearings in New Orleans. Orleans parish Civil District Judge Kern Reese issued that ruling in response to a suit filed by community activist groups. The two city courts will have to find locations in Orleans Parish to hold the hearings, rather than in Gonzales where the courts are temporarily located.

Rebuilding Infrastructure & Economic Development

The Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission says its two business assistance centers have helped more than 200 businesses get financial and staffing assistance to recover from Katrina. Financing and temporary housing for employees are the big issues facing the impacted businesses.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin testified Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, urging the support of Congress for rebuilding safe levees, reconstructing the city’s water and sewer system, repairing and restoring the transportation system and tax incentives for businesses and residents to return to the area.


Health & Environmental Issues

The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday satellite imagery shows hurricanes Katrina and Rita turned 100 square miles of marsh into open water. Officials say it is too early to tell how much of the open water will revert back to marshland, but it is very likely that many new lakes will form.

Louisiana officials are not happy with initial indications from the Bush administration that they will give the state only a fraction of the money needed to rebuild coastal buffers destroyed by the hurricanes. The emergency spending proposals introduced by the White House last week includes only $250 million to address coastal land loss.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will burn off 483 acres in the Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge to deal with an Rita-related oil spill that has contaminated an area of marsh in the East Cove area.

Other Developments

The Tampa Bay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has raised $45,000 to rebuild the animal shelter in New Orleans. The group will present the check to the Louisiana SPCA in Algiers today.

Old Navy stores in Baton Rouge are joining forces with Governor Blanco to provide more than 1500 children displaced by Hurricane Katrina with a special $100 shopping spree. Gov. Blanco’s staff helped identify the children from local schools, Boys & Girls Clubs and the evacuee trailer city near Baker to participate in the Old Navy Field Trip 4 Fun scheduled for Thursday. Gap, Inc. which owns the Old Navy stores, has contributed more than $2 million to support Katrina recovery efforts.

The city of Hammond says it has experienced considerable growth since Hurricane Katrina. The mayor cited an increase in building permits and sales tax receipts in the last few months as compared to the same time last year. Sales tax receipts for the September reporting period was $1,558,381, a 55% increase over sales taxes collected for the same month in 2004. They were the highest ever reported for a single month.