Southwest Louisiana Cares

President Bush addressed the nation from Jackson Square in New Orleans Thursday night and said the federal government will pick up the tab for most of the reconstruction costs of rebuilding the Gulf Coast. He said there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans and that the city will rise again.

DHH/OPH has reopened some oyster harvest areas that were closed Tuesday, Aug. 30. Oyster harvesting began at sunrise today. This order covers Harvest Areas 15-23 in Terrebonne Parish. Areas 1-14, which were closed on August 30 remain closed until further notice. These beds were closed as a precautionary measure after Hurricane Katrina. DHH said, "Because of the public health concerns about the impact on the quality of seafood harvested from areas potentially affected by the dewatering of New Orleans, DHH/OPH is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations Office of Seafood to monitor any impacts to seafood resulting from the drainage taking place in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina."

State officials have reiterated that bankruptcy will not default on its debts. However, State Treasurer John Kennedy did not make the same promise about local government agencies. He said agencies like police juries and city housing authorities in Katrina ravaged parishes have more than $8 million in outstanding bond debt, money borrowed for construction projects, and other items owed to investors holding the debt. Kennedy also said half of the bond debt is insured. He has asked the states congressional delegation to work for the creation of federal money to either loan or provide credit guarantees to parish and city government agencies in order for them to make their debt and interest payments.

Under a two-year contract between FEMA and the England Economic and Industrial Development District, over 25 acres at England Airpark will be used for camper trailers to house evacuees. The land can house 200 to 300 trailers. The authority will be paid $300 per slot.

Dept. of Social Services has extended the time for residents in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and Plaquemines to apply for disaster-related food stamps. The deadline is now 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, instead of yesterday. Residents in St. Tammany Parish, who also faced the 4:30 deadline yesterday, now have until 4:30 p.m. today; Washington Parish residents have until 4:30 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, Sept. 17), and West Feliciana residents have until 4:30 p.m. Sunday. More than 281,351 citizens have received over $103 million in disaster food stamps since Sept. 2. In order to apply, you must show proof of identification and residency, if possible. Eligibility factors include income level, available resources, expenses, number of people in household and having a social security number.

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard announced last night that almost all of Jefferson Parish will be open to residents by 5 a.m. next Wednesday as follows:

Friday, Sept. 16 - West Jefferson residents living west of the Harvey Canal, and all east bank residents living south of Airline Drive, except those living in the Rio Vista neighborhood in Old Jefferson

Saturday, Sept. 17 - West Jefferson residents living east of the Harvey Canal, and all Metairie residents living between the Kenner and Transcontinental Drive.

Sunday, Sept. 18 - All Metairie residents north of Interstate 10 between Transcontinental and New Orleans.

Monday, Sept. 19 - Rio Vista residents.

Wednesday, Sept. 20 - All remaining Metairie residents living in the area bounded by I-10, Airline, Transcontinental, and New Orleans.

HURRICANE KATRINA RECOVERY UPDATE

September16, 2005 (2^ND Edition)

Rescue/Recovery/Evacuation/Security

∙As of late Wednesday afternoon, the official Hurricane Katrina death toll is 579, up only slightly from the 558 reported yesterday.

∙Temporary housing communities for Katrina evacuees are springing up across Louisiana. By early next week, evacuees should be moving into the 172 travel trailers at the Crooked Creek Recreation Area in Evangeline Parish. Vermilion Parish has offered FEMA an industrial park near the Abbeville airport, a motor home park in Kaplan and the Gueydan Duck Festival grounds as possible housing sites. FEMA has approached St. Martin Parish officials about using the old Martin Mills textile plant in St. Martinville as a housing center and job training facility. Parish officials are concerned however about the impact of the some 15,000 people that would come to the facility. FEMA is also in discussions with the Houma-Terrebonne Airport Commission about establishing a temporary community for hundreds of displaced Katrina evacuees on land in east Houma.

∙The Housing Authority of New Orleans has temporarily relocated its operations to Houston in an effort to place thousands of former New Orleanians who receive public assistance into homes throughout Texas.

∙The Department of Social Services says about 500 of the roughly 2,000 foster children displaced by Hurricane Katrina have not yet been located. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of a foster child should call 1-800-259-2456. DSS officials are also still wrestling with how to provide services to those children who have been located out-of-state.

∙The president of the Humane Society of the United States want state and federal authorities to coordinate and set a policy for animal rescues rather than leaving the decision of whether or not to rescue the abandoned pets to individual emergency responders.

∙The American Bar Association has opened a 24 hour toll free number for victims of Hurricane Katrina who need free legal assistance. Victims in Louisiana can call 1-800-310-7029.

∙Kenner Police Chief Nick Congemi says his department has arrested more than 70 people on looting charges since Hurricane Katrina. Most of those arrested were Kenner residents. Fifteen of his officers lost their homes.

∙Over the next few days, the state will release 163 Orleans Parish Prison inmates evacuated to state and parish facilities. The prisoners, scheduled to be released today or earlier, were all accused of minor crimes such as public drunkenness. If the prisoners families cannot be located, they will be released with $10 and a bus ticket. Meanwhile, the state continues to wrestle with the problem of what to do with the remaining inmates since Katrina flooded part of the building where criminal evidence is stored in New Orleans. The New Orleans Court system is in recess until October 3rd.

Infrastructure/Health Concerns
∙Following up on remarks earlier this week to the Louisiana State Legislature, Governor Blanco sent two letters to President Bush Friday. One letter requests that Louisiana businesses, able to provide relief efforts to the state, be given contracting priority by the federal government. The other ask the President to take the significant step to allow FEMA to provide 100% of the cost of disaster assistance until August 29, 2006 since the state will be unable to meet its share of the costs as normally required.

∙Despite predictions from Mayor Nagin Thursday that the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway might be opened to general traffic today, Causeway Commission officials say no decision has been made on re-opening the 24 mile span to general traffic. The situation is reviewed on a daily basis.

∙With the parish expected to double in size, East Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden is asking the federal government for $173 million for area road improvements including widening Interstates 10 and 12 in East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Livingston parishes and creating a loop from West Baton Rouge to Interstate 10 in Ascension Parish. Another $11 million is on his wish list to handle the additional stress the increased population is placing on city services.
∙The chairman of the FCC is proposing to spend $211 million to provide phone and data services to consumers, schools and hospitals affected by Hurricane Katrina. The money would come from the Universal Service Fund, which provides about $6.5 billion a year to support access to telecommunications services for rural and low-income consumers, as well as schools and libraries. The proposal would give evacuees cellphones with 300 free minutes and help customers reconnect their phone lines. Chairman Martin is also plans to create a committee within the next two weeks to assess the communication problems during the storm.

∙A suit has now been filed in Baton Rouge asking that the courts define terms such as act of God and rising water so that insurance companies will be required to pay for the losses associated with flooding after Hurricane Katrina.

∙Late Friday afternoon, EPA and DEQ released the results of tests conducted on sediments left behind by receding floodwaters. The tests show unhealthy levels of E. coli and diesel and fuel oils. The levels of metals detected were below unhealthy levels. EPA recommends avoiding all contact with sediment deposited by the flood water, where possible.

∙State Public Health officials are urging evacuees to avoid unnecessary vaccinations before they return to their homes because of a limited supply of several vaccines. They say most residents only need a tetanus shot or booster before returning to affected parishes.

∙The U.S. Coast Guard says as many as 1,000 houses in Chalmette may have been contaminated by a crude oil spill from the Murphy oil refinery. Two class-action lawsuits have already been filed against Murphy by residents of St. Bernard Parish because of the oil leak. Despite all of that Murphy Oil, which is one of the parishs biggest employers, expect to back in operation in about two months.

∙Louisiana is asking the federal government to provide emergency financing and fast-track permitting for a $34 billion hurricane protection and coastal restoration plan that would cover southeast Louisiana from the Pearl River basin to Morgan City. The plan includes a system of levees tall enough to withstand the 20 foot storm surges expected with a Category 5 hurricane.

∙Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom said Friday that Hurricane Katrinas damage to Louisiana agriculture is expected to top $1 billion with another $200 to $500 million in losses related to infrastructure damage. The timber industry in the Florida Parishes is expected to take the biggest hit with damages totaling as much as $700 million.

∙Environmental groups are criticizing a measure introduced by the chairman of the U.S. Senate environment committee that would allow EPA to waive or modify any law governing air, water or land if it was necessary to respond in a timely and effective manner to Hurricane Katrina. Earlier this week, EPA temporarily relaxed standards for diesel fuel to help Gulf Coast refineries return to normal levels of production and distribution.
Other Developments

∙According to the National Emergency Management Association, Hurricane Katrina prompted the largest-ever sharing of resources and personnel among states through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. All states, except California and Hawaii, participate in EMAC.

∙For the next 6 months, a Finnish ferry with some 500 cabins will be home to LSU Health Sciences Center Medical School faculty and students. The ferry is expected to dock in Baton Rouge by October 2nd.

∙The historic Hotel Monteleone will reopen around October 15th. The hotel has set up a sales office in Baton Rouge and is contacting meeting planners and tour groups to get the word out.

∙The New Orleans Bowl, the December bowl game that matches the champion of the New Orleans-based Sun Belt Conference with a team for Conference USA, may move to Lafayette.
∙The city editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune is writing a book about Hurricane Katrina tentatively entitled Desire: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans to be published by Random House. Historian Douglas Brinkley is also writing a Hurricane Katrina book, The Great Deluge.

∙Former Louisiana State Legislator Ron Faucheux, now a nationally recognized political analyst, has started a campaign to persuade both political parties to hold their 2008 presidential nominating conventions in New Orleans.

∙U.S. Senate leaders traveled to the Gulf Coast to view the damage from Hurricane Katrina. While in New Orleans, they were briefed on recovery efforts and met with Governor Blanco.