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so we all have heard the horrors of new orleans and the toxic sewage it has created for the evacuated residents whom are returning home. but how have things been dealt with so far so that there wont be an epidemic outbreak?
has anyone looked into bioremediation? such as large scale composting and water treatement plants? i dont work in any of those facilities but i have done research on it. i'm curious as to how they will rebuild new orleans, are there any environmentalist left that have power to persuade? fema apparently didnt help. any way i know its still a long road ahead, but india has used bioremediation to help clean the ganges and for water filtration. your thoughts?
--------------------------------------
The Bush Regime has targeted blacks for exclusion from New Orleans, after the Katrina catastrophe occurred, leaving more than a million people displaced all over the country.
again."
Secretary Jackson says, he isn't sure that the Ninth Ward, a predominantly black and poor neighborhood devastated by flooding, should be rebuilt at all....
Peoples worst suspicisns are coming true, as we can now already can see that the Bush Regime has HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson touring the nation to publicly promote future policies that would exclude blacks from returning to New Orleans... See Houston Chronicle article below...
Adding more to racial tensions across the nation, Former Republican Secretary of Education William Bennett remarked yesterday on his radio show that, "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." See Press Release below...
Meanwhile...
The Bush Regime has been using the Katrina catastrophe as an excuse to loot the nation's housing assistance programs...
HUD's new program called KDHAP, for Katrinas evacuees is now available to scrutinize on-line...
100s of thousands are still left homeless from the Katrina catastrophe...
Immigrants are being deprived of disaster assistance...
Fema red tape is killer to evacuees...
New Orleans Mayor invites people back to a toxic hell hole, as the Feds look the other way...
Bush opposes medical care for evacuees...
Katrina evacuees are still being pitted against locals around the nation for housing assistance, and for those being bumped from their place in line for assistance, the Katrina disaster ended up becoming their own disaster...
It's obvious to even the dullest of intellects that the policies of the Bush Regime are killing the American public...
~~~
POPULATION SHIFT
New Orleans' racial makeup up in air Some black areas may not be rebuilt, HUD chief says
By LORI RODRIGUEZ and ZEKE MINAYA
Sept. 29, 2005, 6:08AM
Copyright 2005
Houston Chronicle
It will be years before New Orleans regains the half-million population it had before Hurricane Katrina, and the population might never again be predominantly black, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said Wednesday during a visit to Houston.
"Whether we like it or not, New Orleans is not going to be 500,000 people for a long time," he said. "New Orleans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."
He said he isn't sure that the Ninth Ward, a predominantly black and poor neighborhood devastated by flooding, should be rebuilt at all. If it is, the new construction should be designed to withstand disaster, he said.
In a meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board, the housing secretary, who is black, also criticized the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other black leaders, saying they were stirring up racial animosity in their comments about Katrina.
"I wish that the so-called black leadership would stop running around this country, like Jesse and the rest of them, making this a racial issue," the HUD chief said.
That remark, as well as the skepticism about rebuilding the Ninth Ward, drew sharp responses from Jesse Jackson.
Interviewed by the Chronicle on his way to Detroit to visit Katrina evacuees, the civil rights leader said that the racial dimension of the New Orleans crisis is not something he introduced.
The news coverage of the evacuation and relief efforts made it clear that a great many of those affected were black, poor and unable to leave on their own, he said.
"Those are the images that were burned into the consciousness of the world and became so embarrassing," he said.
The decision on whether to rebuild the Ninth Ward should be left to the former residents of the ruined neighborhood, he added, saying "People have the human right to return home."
Alphonso Jackson predicted New Orleans will slowly draw back as many as 375,000 people, but that only 35 to 40 percent of the post-Katrina population would be black.
Jackson said that's because the worst-hit areas were low-income black neighborhoods that may never fully be repopulated.
Prior to Katrina, the population was 67 percent black and 28 percent white.
"I'm telling you, as HUD secretary and having been a developer and a planner, that's how its going to be," he said.
Jackson said he has been asked by President Bush to help New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin rebuild the city. His advice to Nagin during a meeting Friday: Build higher, sturdier and more water-resistant housing.
"I told him I think it would be a mistake to rebuild the Ninth Ward," he said. "I said I'm not sure what we do with it, or if we decide to build in the Ninth Ward we have to look at different ways of building."
One such possibility would be devoting the lowest parts of all structures to parking garages rather than residences.
While in Houston, the HUD secretary met with hurricane victims. During a late-morning stop at the Primrose Casa Bella Senior Apartments on Airline, the HUD chief hugged evacuee Emily Wilkus, 73, who lived in the Calliope Project in New Orleans.
"He told me to hang on," Wilkus said afterward, a tear on her cheek. "I want to go back home. I'm hurting."
Jackson asked the evacuees, who were gathered together in a common room, to be patient.
"I realize that this is not home," he said. "It will be a while before you can really go back home to live there."
Becky Bowman contributed to this report.
lori.rodriguez@chron.com, zeke.minaya@chron.com
www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssis...ront/3374480
********** Katrina destroyed 275,000 homes
news.yahoo.com/news
********** Hundreds of thousands still homeless as US leaders fight over storm response
(AFP) Wed Sep 28, 3:18 PM ET
LAKE CHARLES, United States (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of residents along the Gulf of Mexico coast remained homeless after two devastating hurricanes as US leaders fought over the government's response to the disaster.
The death toll from Saturday's Hurricane Rita rose to 10 Tuesday, while the number of dead from Hurricane Katrina passed 1,100 as President George W. Bush again toured the disaster zone.
Rescuers in helicopters and boats continued to patrol for victims throughout the flooded lowlands and devastated communities as Bush met emergency response leaders at Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of several cities caught in the eye of the storm's 195-kilometer (120-mile) an hour winds.
It is Bush's seventh trip to the region since Hurricane Katrina struck August 29, killing 1,121 people, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless and exposing serious weaknesses in state and federal disaster management.
Hundreds of thousands of evacuees were stranded on clogged highways when the hurricane hit, while others have found themselves marooned in the disaster zone without assistance.
"Our government sucks. They're horrible. ... Bush, he dropped food to foreign countries and he can't get to his own people," said Christina Guerra, 35, of storm-hit Orange, Texas.
Meanwhile, lawmakers and Bush administration officials wrangled over how to pay the immense recovery bill, and how best to get that money to those who need it.
Louisiana has demanded 250 billion dollars in federal aid, including 40 billion to repair the levees of New Orleans which overflowed after Katrina struck. Mississippi and Alabama are expected to need another 50 million.
Click below for full story...
news.yahoo.com/news
********** Katrina Victims Denied Aid and Face Deportation
New America Media, News Feature, Elena Shore, Sep 28, 2005
EDITOR'S NOTE: After the Sept. 11 attacks, the government assured undocumented immigrant victims they wouldn't face prosecution if they sought aid. After Katrina, they have no such luck.
Univision, the country's largest Spanish-language broadcaster, has had trouble getting accurate information to tell its audiences about the rights of undocumented victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Anchorwoman María Elena Salinas says the government hasn't been straightforward about what benefits and protections such victims can and can't receive.
"When asked over and over again by Spanish-language journalists whether or not undocumented immigrants would be excluded from aid, time and time again FEMA's representatives said the aid is for 'all' of the victims," reports Salinas. "But we later learned how relative the terms 'aid' and 'all' can be."
Undocumented survivors of Katrina are being denied federal relief services, and at a time when they most need to come forward to seek assistance still find themselves vulnerable to deportation.
Many immigrants are afraid they'll be arrested and deported if they seek aid, a fear that's no longer hypothetical. Five victims of Katrina were arrested in Texas and West Virginia and are now facing deportation proceedings.
"Now many people are so terrified they won't even come out of their homes," says Jennifer Ng'andu of National Council of La Raza. She says her organization has received reports of people being refused services because they couldn't speak English.
Click below for full story...
news.pacificnews.org/news/vi...cle.html
********** FEMA red tape frustrates evacuees County cites overloaded phone lines, Web site glitches
By Michelle Maitre, STAFF WRITER Article Last Updated: 09/29/2005 06:05:33 AM
Workers at Alameda County's assistance center for Hurricane Katrina evacuees report delays in dealing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with one worker saying folks have waited up to six hours to check the status of aid applications over the Internet.
"It's a communications debacle, is what it is," said Susan Anderson, a health consultant and privacy liaison for the Alameda County Public Health Department who has helped staff the Katrina services center at Eastmont Town Center in Oakland.
"Too many people sitting down across the desk from me have broken down crying over this, over FEMA," Anderson said.
By Wednesday, more than 1.7 million people had registered for FEMA aid, Ellis said, and the agency had doled out about $2.4 billion.
Alameda County officials estimate that as many as 600 families relocated to the East Bay following Hurricane Katrina.
The Alameda County local assistance center is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Eastmont Town Center Adult and Aging Services Department, 6995 Foothill Blvd., third floor, Oakland, 577-5635. Visit www.fema.gov or call (800) 621-3362 to apply for FEMA emergency assistance.
Click below for full story...
www.insidebayarea.com/ci_3071544
********** Katrina Evacuees Competing With Locals for Public Housing
By Emily Gurnon Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. September 29, 2005
Public housing agencies in St. Paul and Minneapolis may adopt policies today that would move Hurricane Katrina victims to the top of lengthy waiting lists for subsidized homes, delaying low-cost apartments for more than 13,000 Twin Cities families.
Sharica Williams, a single mother from Brooklyn Park, is among the public housing applicants who may be asked to step aside for hurricane evacuees.
"As much as I want to help them, I'm not in a position to help -- and I don't think taking from my child is going to help them feel any better," said Williams, 24, who has a 6-year-old daughter.
The St. Paul Public Housing Agency board, which meets this morning, would extend the preference only to Hurricane Katrina victims. The Minneapolis agency board, which meets this afternoon, would offer the benefit to victims of other federally declared disasters as well.
"It's a balancing act," said Tom Streitz, deputy executive director of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. "We're very mindful of the fact that we have many individuals and families in this community that currently have housing needs, and we want to be sensitive to their needs as well. I think most people understand that we're just trying to help some people who are in a bad situation."
In St. Paul, 6,200 families are waiting for openings within a stock of 4,200 units of public housing. Minneapolis has about 7,000 families waiting for vacancies in a system of about 5,000 units.
Officials said they didn't yet know how many hurricane victims might seek public housing in the Twin Cities. More than 1,100 individuals and families in Minnesota have registered as hurricane victims with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Williams, who signed up for public housing and Section 8 vouchers two years ago, said she is sympathetic toward people who lost everything in the hurricane. But she said she's concerned that putting them at the front of the line for public housing isn't fair.
Click below for full story...
www.knowledgeplex.org/news/118158.html
********** [Feds Lose 50,000 Homes/Rental Units To Katrina] Hearing broaches major Katrina housing crisis
By Evan Lehmann Washington Bureau Sentinel & Enterprise - Sep 28 7:31 AM
WASHINGTON - Roughly 50,000 apartments and homes owned by the federal government and inhabited by destitute and disabled citizens until a month ago were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, an administration official told Congress yesterday.
Impoverished tenants scattered to shelters and elsewhere. The federal government is struggling to find and house them, but the nation faces an "unprecedented housing crisis," said Roy Bernardi, deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
"This is on a magnitude, in my lifetime, I've never experienced," said Bernardi, who testified before the House Appropriation Committee's housing panel, which oversees HUD.
The hearing was one of the first on Katrina. It zeroed in on some of the poorest people to be displaced, and illuminated a mammoth rebuilding effort that will cost billions and last years.
"It is going to be enormous," Olver said after the hearing. "This is just the beginning."
The hearing coincided with the opening of a controversial congressional investigation into the Bush administration's response to the deadly hurricane last month.
House Democrats largely boycotted the investigative hearing yesterday, saying the GOP-controlled Congress would fail to lead an objective inquiry into the Republican administration.
Only three Democrats, all of whom live in the affected region, dotted the room's left side as former FEMA director Michael Brown was pelted by biting questions from the panel.
But HUD's data was lacking: Officials don't know precisely how many government housing units were ruined, saying a preliminary estimate of 50,000 came from scattered inspections and aerial photographs.
Click below for full story...
www.sentinelandenterprise.com/loc...8879
Click below for the full September 27 testimony of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Roy A. Bernardi to House Appropriations Subcommittee...
www.hud.gov/offices/cir/test092705.cfm
********** [New Orleans Mayor Invites People Back To Reside In Environmental Disaster.] Katrina destroyed at least 140,000 La. homes, businesses
By DOUG SIMPSON Associated Press Writer September 29. 2005 6:58PM
At least 140,000 south Louisiana homes and businesses are uninhabitable because of floods and winds from Hurricane Katrina, the state's top environmental official said Thursday.
The buildings make up a large chunk of the 22 million tons of debris the storm left behind, said Mike McDaniel, chief of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The number of buildings that should be condemned and bulldozed could be as high as 160,000, McDaniel said.
The figures are the result of the agency's first overall damage assessment of the parishes affected by the storm.
The storm also destroyed 350,000 cars and other vehicles, McDaniel said, many of which sat under water in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish for weeks. Auto salvage companies have begun scrapping the vehicles for parts.
Another 1 million stoves, refrigerators and other appliances must be disposed of, McDaniel said.
Johnson said Nagin's plan to allow certain New Orleans residents and business people back into the city this week created "a myriad" of potential health concerns: no drinkable water and no working sewer system, plus bacteria- and petroleum-laden floodwater and its residue, which could cause illness.
"EPA is very concerned about the opening of those parts of the city," he said. "There are a whole lot of factors that need to be weighing on the mayor's mind."
McDaniel said the region faces plenty of other environmental problems: 176 low-level radiation leaks, tens of millions of gallons of hazardous materials, such as cleansers and bleach, polluted floodwater that was pumped into Lake Ponchartrain, raw sewage that is still pumping into the Mississippi River.
Click below for full story...
www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article
********** [[[HUD Notices Updated September 28]]]
Updates Include: Program Guidance, Waivers, and Notices In Response to Hurricane Katrina
www.hud.gov/katrina/proguidance.cfm
New HUD Program -- Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program (KDHAP)
www.hud.gov/utilities/intercept.cfm
Assistance to Public Housing Residents and Voucher Recipients who were Affected by Hurricane Katrina
www.hud.gov/offices/pih/...aguideres.cfm
President Bush Suspends Davis-Bacon Wage Requirements for Areas Impacted by Hurricane Katrina
www.hud.gov/offices/olr/...pension05.cfm
**********
Homeless families to rally at Hastert's office
Kane County Chronicle Thursday, September 29, 2005
BATAVIA — Homeless families will join the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless in a rally today outside House Speaker Dennis Hastert's district office in downtown Batavia.
The rally will be at 11 a.m. today outside Hastert's office at 27 N. River St. Because only 30 people are expected at the rally, Batavia police will not close off the street.
Rally organizers said human need programs should not be cut to pay for the relief and reconstruction needed because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
www.kcchronicle.com/SportsSe...80934.php
**********
Evacuees arrive at camp in Lonsdale
Benton Courier - Sep 29 12:58 PM Nearly 400 Hurricane Katrina evacuees arrived Monday at Springlake Baptist Assembly in Lonsdale. The evacuees were taken initially to Fort Chaffee near Fort Smith to register and be screened for medical conditions.
Click below for full story...
www.bentoncourier.com/article...news.txt
********** Senate warns White House it faces defeat on Medicaid Bush opposes program's expansion to cover victims of Hurricane
San Francisco Chronicle - Sep 29 7:22 AM Washington -- Pressed hard by Gulf state governors, senators from both political parties warned the White House on Wednesday to drop its opposition to a proposed expansion of Medicaid for Hurricane Katrina evacuees and devastated states -- or face a potentially embarrassing political rout.
Click below for full story...
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi
********** Congressmen to urge HUD to reverse rental decision
Milford Daily News - Sep 28 9:55 PM M ILFORD -- Help from the top may be coming for hundreds of Milford tenants who stand to lose substantial federal money to help them pay their rent.
Click below for full story...
www.milforddailynews.com/local...iew.bg
********** HUD Grants Will Be Used For Katrina Costs
WLOX-TV Biloxi - Sep 29 8:29 AM The cities of Pascagoula and Moss Point will use annual grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to address infrastructure, housing and public safety projects in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Click below for full story...
www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp
********** In Arkansas, grassroots activists to the rescue of Katrina evacuees
Online Journal - September 27, 2005 There are 75,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in Arkansas, according to Kathryn Hall-Trujillo. She is the director of the Birthing Project USA, a maternal and child health program nationwide.
Click below for full story...
www.onlinejournal.com/Special...sky.html
********** [Housing Bubble Bursting] California housing market at 'tipping point': UCLA
Reuters via Yahoo! News - Sep 28 11:23 AM California's housing market is overvalued by up to 45 percent and at a "tipping point" that will end its red-hot growth cycle, the UCLA Anderson Forecast projected on Wednesday.
Click below for full story...
news.yahoo.com/news
********** Speaker decries lack of affordable housing
Marquette Tribune - Sep 29 6:39 AM Affordable housing must be promoted in the United States, according to a representative of the Jesuit Conference, especially in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina and the increasing inability of families to afford homes.
Click below for full story...
www.marquettetribune.org/32164...27.bsp
********** Germantown tenants dispute dish directive: Ordered to remove satellite TV antennas
Patriot Ledger - Sep 29 6:11 AM QUINCY - Germantown public housing residents want their MTV. Via a satellite dish, that is. Tenants in federally subsidized apartments in Germantown plan to fight a directive from the Quincy Housing Authority to take down satellite dishes from outside the townhouse-style homes where they live.
Click below for full story...
ledger.southofboston.com/artic...11.txt
********** Evacuees remain in B-CS one month later
The Bryan-College Station Eagle - Sep 29 6:52 AM At least 530 Hurricane Katrina evacuees - most likely double or even triple that number - remain in Bryan and College Station one month after the storm struck Louisiana and Mississippi, officials estimated Wednesday.
Click below for full story...
www.theeagle.com/stories/0...929004.php
**********
Food Bank needs additional donations for recovery effort
2theadvocate.com - Sep 29 1:23 PM In the massive effort to assist those affected and displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rite, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank has distributed on average more than 53,000 pounds of food per day since Aug. 31. These donations went to first-responding organizations, directly stricken areas, shelters housing displaced evacuees and churches providing assistance for displaced families.
Click below for full story...
www.2theadvocate.com/stories...01.shtml
**********
Dean Calls on Republican Leadership to Repudiate Bill Bennett's Racist Remarks
9/29/2005 6:56:00 PM
To: National Desk, Political Reporter
Contact: Amaya Smith of the Democratic National Committee Staff, 202-863-8148
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Former Republican Secretary of Education William Bennett remarked yesterday on his radio show that, "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement:
"Bill Bennett's hateful, inflammatory remarks regarding African Americans are simply inexcusable. They are particularly unacceptable from a leader in the conservative movement and former Secretary of Education, once charged with the well being of every American school child. He should apologize immediately. This kind of statement is hardly compassionate conservatism; rather, Bennett's comments demonstrate a reprehensible racial insensitivity and ignorance. Are these the values of the Republican Party and its conservative allies? If not, President Bush, Ken Mehlman and the Republican Leadership should denounce them immediately as hateful, divisive and worthy only of scorn.
"As Americans, we should focus on the virtues that bring us together, not hatred that tears us apart and unjustly scapegoats fellow Americans."
Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org . This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp
********* PRESS RELEASE Press Release
Source: American Federation of Government Employees
AFGE Says No to Raiding Pensions and Medicare for Katrina Clean-Up
Monday September 26, 10:34 am ET
American People Need a Working Government More Than the Rich Need Their Tax Breaks, Says Union President
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of some 100 Republican members of Congress have issued a report calling for the clean-up of Hurricane Katrina to be paid for on the backs of the nation's poor and elderly, as well as the increasingly strapped middle class. The caucus, which calls itself the Republican Study Group, has issued a report on budget options under the rubric, "Operation Offset," that calls for cuts in Medicare, education and the pensions and funding of health insurance for retired public employees.
"What this group is calling for is nothing less than breaching the covenant Congress made with the federal employees who devoted their careers to serving the American people -- usually for salaries significantly less than those earned by their counterparts in the private sector," said John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). "Meanwhile, rank-and-file employees of the federal government are living in tents in Louisiana and Mississippi, wading through fetid waters, and working 12- and 16-hour shifts in order to provide relief to the citizens of the affected regions.
"And that's just for starters. All of America's elderly would suffer under the cuts for Medicare funding proposed by the Republican Study Committee. In fact, under this proposal, nearly everybody takes a significant hit -- everybody, of course, but the wealthy, who would still get their tax cuts.
Click below for full Press Release...
biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050926/dcm023.html
has anyone looked into bioremediation? such as large scale composting and water treatement plants? i dont work in any of those facilities but i have done research on it. i'm curious as to how they will rebuild new orleans, are there any environmentalist left that have power to persuade? fema apparently didnt help. any way i know its still a long road ahead, but india has used bioremediation to help clean the ganges and for water filtration. your thoughts?
--------------------------------------
The Bush Regime has targeted blacks for exclusion from New Orleans, after the Katrina catastrophe occurred, leaving more than a million people displaced all over the country.
again."
Secretary Jackson says, he isn't sure that the Ninth Ward, a predominantly black and poor neighborhood devastated by flooding, should be rebuilt at all....
Peoples worst suspicisns are coming true, as we can now already can see that the Bush Regime has HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson touring the nation to publicly promote future policies that would exclude blacks from returning to New Orleans... See Houston Chronicle article below...
Adding more to racial tensions across the nation, Former Republican Secretary of Education William Bennett remarked yesterday on his radio show that, "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." See Press Release below...
Meanwhile...
The Bush Regime has been using the Katrina catastrophe as an excuse to loot the nation's housing assistance programs...
HUD's new program called KDHAP, for Katrinas evacuees is now available to scrutinize on-line...
100s of thousands are still left homeless from the Katrina catastrophe...
Immigrants are being deprived of disaster assistance...
Fema red tape is killer to evacuees...
New Orleans Mayor invites people back to a toxic hell hole, as the Feds look the other way...
Bush opposes medical care for evacuees...
Katrina evacuees are still being pitted against locals around the nation for housing assistance, and for those being bumped from their place in line for assistance, the Katrina disaster ended up becoming their own disaster...
It's obvious to even the dullest of intellects that the policies of the Bush Regime are killing the American public...
~~~
POPULATION SHIFT
New Orleans' racial makeup up in air Some black areas may not be rebuilt, HUD chief says
By LORI RODRIGUEZ and ZEKE MINAYA
Sept. 29, 2005, 6:08AM
Copyright 2005
Houston Chronicle
It will be years before New Orleans regains the half-million population it had before Hurricane Katrina, and the population might never again be predominantly black, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said Wednesday during a visit to Houston.
"Whether we like it or not, New Orleans is not going to be 500,000 people for a long time," he said. "New Orleans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."
He said he isn't sure that the Ninth Ward, a predominantly black and poor neighborhood devastated by flooding, should be rebuilt at all. If it is, the new construction should be designed to withstand disaster, he said.
In a meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board, the housing secretary, who is black, also criticized the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other black leaders, saying they were stirring up racial animosity in their comments about Katrina.
"I wish that the so-called black leadership would stop running around this country, like Jesse and the rest of them, making this a racial issue," the HUD chief said.
That remark, as well as the skepticism about rebuilding the Ninth Ward, drew sharp responses from Jesse Jackson.
Interviewed by the Chronicle on his way to Detroit to visit Katrina evacuees, the civil rights leader said that the racial dimension of the New Orleans crisis is not something he introduced.
The news coverage of the evacuation and relief efforts made it clear that a great many of those affected were black, poor and unable to leave on their own, he said.
"Those are the images that were burned into the consciousness of the world and became so embarrassing," he said.
The decision on whether to rebuild the Ninth Ward should be left to the former residents of the ruined neighborhood, he added, saying "People have the human right to return home."
Alphonso Jackson predicted New Orleans will slowly draw back as many as 375,000 people, but that only 35 to 40 percent of the post-Katrina population would be black.
Jackson said that's because the worst-hit areas were low-income black neighborhoods that may never fully be repopulated.
Prior to Katrina, the population was 67 percent black and 28 percent white.
"I'm telling you, as HUD secretary and having been a developer and a planner, that's how its going to be," he said.
Jackson said he has been asked by President Bush to help New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin rebuild the city. His advice to Nagin during a meeting Friday: Build higher, sturdier and more water-resistant housing.
"I told him I think it would be a mistake to rebuild the Ninth Ward," he said. "I said I'm not sure what we do with it, or if we decide to build in the Ninth Ward we have to look at different ways of building."
One such possibility would be devoting the lowest parts of all structures to parking garages rather than residences.
While in Houston, the HUD secretary met with hurricane victims. During a late-morning stop at the Primrose Casa Bella Senior Apartments on Airline, the HUD chief hugged evacuee Emily Wilkus, 73, who lived in the Calliope Project in New Orleans.
"He told me to hang on," Wilkus said afterward, a tear on her cheek. "I want to go back home. I'm hurting."
Jackson asked the evacuees, who were gathered together in a common room, to be patient.
"I realize that this is not home," he said. "It will be a while before you can really go back home to live there."
Becky Bowman contributed to this report.
lori.rodriguez@chron.com, zeke.minaya@chron.com
www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssis...ront/3374480
********** Katrina destroyed 275,000 homes
news.yahoo.com/news
********** Hundreds of thousands still homeless as US leaders fight over storm response
(AFP) Wed Sep 28, 3:18 PM ET
LAKE CHARLES, United States (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of residents along the Gulf of Mexico coast remained homeless after two devastating hurricanes as US leaders fought over the government's response to the disaster.
The death toll from Saturday's Hurricane Rita rose to 10 Tuesday, while the number of dead from Hurricane Katrina passed 1,100 as President George W. Bush again toured the disaster zone.
Rescuers in helicopters and boats continued to patrol for victims throughout the flooded lowlands and devastated communities as Bush met emergency response leaders at Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of several cities caught in the eye of the storm's 195-kilometer (120-mile) an hour winds.
It is Bush's seventh trip to the region since Hurricane Katrina struck August 29, killing 1,121 people, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless and exposing serious weaknesses in state and federal disaster management.
Hundreds of thousands of evacuees were stranded on clogged highways when the hurricane hit, while others have found themselves marooned in the disaster zone without assistance.
"Our government sucks. They're horrible. ... Bush, he dropped food to foreign countries and he can't get to his own people," said Christina Guerra, 35, of storm-hit Orange, Texas.
Meanwhile, lawmakers and Bush administration officials wrangled over how to pay the immense recovery bill, and how best to get that money to those who need it.
Louisiana has demanded 250 billion dollars in federal aid, including 40 billion to repair the levees of New Orleans which overflowed after Katrina struck. Mississippi and Alabama are expected to need another 50 million.
Click below for full story...
news.yahoo.com/news
********** Katrina Victims Denied Aid and Face Deportation
New America Media, News Feature, Elena Shore, Sep 28, 2005
EDITOR'S NOTE: After the Sept. 11 attacks, the government assured undocumented immigrant victims they wouldn't face prosecution if they sought aid. After Katrina, they have no such luck.
Univision, the country's largest Spanish-language broadcaster, has had trouble getting accurate information to tell its audiences about the rights of undocumented victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Anchorwoman María Elena Salinas says the government hasn't been straightforward about what benefits and protections such victims can and can't receive.
"When asked over and over again by Spanish-language journalists whether or not undocumented immigrants would be excluded from aid, time and time again FEMA's representatives said the aid is for 'all' of the victims," reports Salinas. "But we later learned how relative the terms 'aid' and 'all' can be."
Undocumented survivors of Katrina are being denied federal relief services, and at a time when they most need to come forward to seek assistance still find themselves vulnerable to deportation.
Many immigrants are afraid they'll be arrested and deported if they seek aid, a fear that's no longer hypothetical. Five victims of Katrina were arrested in Texas and West Virginia and are now facing deportation proceedings.
"Now many people are so terrified they won't even come out of their homes," says Jennifer Ng'andu of National Council of La Raza. She says her organization has received reports of people being refused services because they couldn't speak English.
Click below for full story...
news.pacificnews.org/news/vi...cle.html
********** FEMA red tape frustrates evacuees County cites overloaded phone lines, Web site glitches
By Michelle Maitre, STAFF WRITER Article Last Updated: 09/29/2005 06:05:33 AM
Workers at Alameda County's assistance center for Hurricane Katrina evacuees report delays in dealing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with one worker saying folks have waited up to six hours to check the status of aid applications over the Internet.
"It's a communications debacle, is what it is," said Susan Anderson, a health consultant and privacy liaison for the Alameda County Public Health Department who has helped staff the Katrina services center at Eastmont Town Center in Oakland.
"Too many people sitting down across the desk from me have broken down crying over this, over FEMA," Anderson said.
By Wednesday, more than 1.7 million people had registered for FEMA aid, Ellis said, and the agency had doled out about $2.4 billion.
Alameda County officials estimate that as many as 600 families relocated to the East Bay following Hurricane Katrina.
The Alameda County local assistance center is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Eastmont Town Center Adult and Aging Services Department, 6995 Foothill Blvd., third floor, Oakland, 577-5635. Visit www.fema.gov or call (800) 621-3362 to apply for FEMA emergency assistance.
Click below for full story...
www.insidebayarea.com/ci_3071544
********** Katrina Evacuees Competing With Locals for Public Housing
By Emily Gurnon Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. September 29, 2005
Public housing agencies in St. Paul and Minneapolis may adopt policies today that would move Hurricane Katrina victims to the top of lengthy waiting lists for subsidized homes, delaying low-cost apartments for more than 13,000 Twin Cities families.
Sharica Williams, a single mother from Brooklyn Park, is among the public housing applicants who may be asked to step aside for hurricane evacuees.
"As much as I want to help them, I'm not in a position to help -- and I don't think taking from my child is going to help them feel any better," said Williams, 24, who has a 6-year-old daughter.
The St. Paul Public Housing Agency board, which meets this morning, would extend the preference only to Hurricane Katrina victims. The Minneapolis agency board, which meets this afternoon, would offer the benefit to victims of other federally declared disasters as well.
"It's a balancing act," said Tom Streitz, deputy executive director of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. "We're very mindful of the fact that we have many individuals and families in this community that currently have housing needs, and we want to be sensitive to their needs as well. I think most people understand that we're just trying to help some people who are in a bad situation."
In St. Paul, 6,200 families are waiting for openings within a stock of 4,200 units of public housing. Minneapolis has about 7,000 families waiting for vacancies in a system of about 5,000 units.
Officials said they didn't yet know how many hurricane victims might seek public housing in the Twin Cities. More than 1,100 individuals and families in Minnesota have registered as hurricane victims with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Williams, who signed up for public housing and Section 8 vouchers two years ago, said she is sympathetic toward people who lost everything in the hurricane. But she said she's concerned that putting them at the front of the line for public housing isn't fair.
Click below for full story...
www.knowledgeplex.org/news/118158.html
********** [Feds Lose 50,000 Homes/Rental Units To Katrina] Hearing broaches major Katrina housing crisis
By Evan Lehmann Washington Bureau Sentinel & Enterprise - Sep 28 7:31 AM
WASHINGTON - Roughly 50,000 apartments and homes owned by the federal government and inhabited by destitute and disabled citizens until a month ago were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, an administration official told Congress yesterday.
Impoverished tenants scattered to shelters and elsewhere. The federal government is struggling to find and house them, but the nation faces an "unprecedented housing crisis," said Roy Bernardi, deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
"This is on a magnitude, in my lifetime, I've never experienced," said Bernardi, who testified before the House Appropriation Committee's housing panel, which oversees HUD.
The hearing was one of the first on Katrina. It zeroed in on some of the poorest people to be displaced, and illuminated a mammoth rebuilding effort that will cost billions and last years.
"It is going to be enormous," Olver said after the hearing. "This is just the beginning."
The hearing coincided with the opening of a controversial congressional investigation into the Bush administration's response to the deadly hurricane last month.
House Democrats largely boycotted the investigative hearing yesterday, saying the GOP-controlled Congress would fail to lead an objective inquiry into the Republican administration.
Only three Democrats, all of whom live in the affected region, dotted the room's left side as former FEMA director Michael Brown was pelted by biting questions from the panel.
But HUD's data was lacking: Officials don't know precisely how many government housing units were ruined, saying a preliminary estimate of 50,000 came from scattered inspections and aerial photographs.
Click below for full story...
www.sentinelandenterprise.com/loc...8879
Click below for the full September 27 testimony of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Roy A. Bernardi to House Appropriations Subcommittee...
www.hud.gov/offices/cir/test092705.cfm
********** [New Orleans Mayor Invites People Back To Reside In Environmental Disaster.] Katrina destroyed at least 140,000 La. homes, businesses
By DOUG SIMPSON Associated Press Writer September 29. 2005 6:58PM
At least 140,000 south Louisiana homes and businesses are uninhabitable because of floods and winds from Hurricane Katrina, the state's top environmental official said Thursday.
The buildings make up a large chunk of the 22 million tons of debris the storm left behind, said Mike McDaniel, chief of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The number of buildings that should be condemned and bulldozed could be as high as 160,000, McDaniel said.
The figures are the result of the agency's first overall damage assessment of the parishes affected by the storm.
The storm also destroyed 350,000 cars and other vehicles, McDaniel said, many of which sat under water in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish for weeks. Auto salvage companies have begun scrapping the vehicles for parts.
Another 1 million stoves, refrigerators and other appliances must be disposed of, McDaniel said.
Johnson said Nagin's plan to allow certain New Orleans residents and business people back into the city this week created "a myriad" of potential health concerns: no drinkable water and no working sewer system, plus bacteria- and petroleum-laden floodwater and its residue, which could cause illness.
"EPA is very concerned about the opening of those parts of the city," he said. "There are a whole lot of factors that need to be weighing on the mayor's mind."
McDaniel said the region faces plenty of other environmental problems: 176 low-level radiation leaks, tens of millions of gallons of hazardous materials, such as cleansers and bleach, polluted floodwater that was pumped into Lake Ponchartrain, raw sewage that is still pumping into the Mississippi River.
Click below for full story...
www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article
********** [[[HUD Notices Updated September 28]]]
Updates Include: Program Guidance, Waivers, and Notices In Response to Hurricane Katrina
www.hud.gov/katrina/proguidance.cfm
New HUD Program -- Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program (KDHAP)
www.hud.gov/utilities/intercept.cfm
Assistance to Public Housing Residents and Voucher Recipients who were Affected by Hurricane Katrina
www.hud.gov/offices/pih/...aguideres.cfm
President Bush Suspends Davis-Bacon Wage Requirements for Areas Impacted by Hurricane Katrina
www.hud.gov/offices/olr/...pension05.cfm
**********
Homeless families to rally at Hastert's office
Kane County Chronicle Thursday, September 29, 2005
BATAVIA — Homeless families will join the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless in a rally today outside House Speaker Dennis Hastert's district office in downtown Batavia.
The rally will be at 11 a.m. today outside Hastert's office at 27 N. River St. Because only 30 people are expected at the rally, Batavia police will not close off the street.
Rally organizers said human need programs should not be cut to pay for the relief and reconstruction needed because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
www.kcchronicle.com/SportsSe...80934.php
**********
Evacuees arrive at camp in Lonsdale
Benton Courier - Sep 29 12:58 PM Nearly 400 Hurricane Katrina evacuees arrived Monday at Springlake Baptist Assembly in Lonsdale. The evacuees were taken initially to Fort Chaffee near Fort Smith to register and be screened for medical conditions.
Click below for full story...
www.bentoncourier.com/article...news.txt
********** Senate warns White House it faces defeat on Medicaid Bush opposes program's expansion to cover victims of Hurricane
San Francisco Chronicle - Sep 29 7:22 AM Washington -- Pressed hard by Gulf state governors, senators from both political parties warned the White House on Wednesday to drop its opposition to a proposed expansion of Medicaid for Hurricane Katrina evacuees and devastated states -- or face a potentially embarrassing political rout.
Click below for full story...
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi
********** Congressmen to urge HUD to reverse rental decision
Milford Daily News - Sep 28 9:55 PM M ILFORD -- Help from the top may be coming for hundreds of Milford tenants who stand to lose substantial federal money to help them pay their rent.
Click below for full story...
www.milforddailynews.com/local...iew.bg
********** HUD Grants Will Be Used For Katrina Costs
WLOX-TV Biloxi - Sep 29 8:29 AM The cities of Pascagoula and Moss Point will use annual grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to address infrastructure, housing and public safety projects in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Click below for full story...
www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp
********** In Arkansas, grassroots activists to the rescue of Katrina evacuees
Online Journal - September 27, 2005 There are 75,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in Arkansas, according to Kathryn Hall-Trujillo. She is the director of the Birthing Project USA, a maternal and child health program nationwide.
Click below for full story...
www.onlinejournal.com/Special...sky.html
********** [Housing Bubble Bursting] California housing market at 'tipping point': UCLA
Reuters via Yahoo! News - Sep 28 11:23 AM California's housing market is overvalued by up to 45 percent and at a "tipping point" that will end its red-hot growth cycle, the UCLA Anderson Forecast projected on Wednesday.
Click below for full story...
news.yahoo.com/news
********** Speaker decries lack of affordable housing
Marquette Tribune - Sep 29 6:39 AM Affordable housing must be promoted in the United States, according to a representative of the Jesuit Conference, especially in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina and the increasing inability of families to afford homes.
Click below for full story...
www.marquettetribune.org/32164...27.bsp
********** Germantown tenants dispute dish directive: Ordered to remove satellite TV antennas
Patriot Ledger - Sep 29 6:11 AM QUINCY - Germantown public housing residents want their MTV. Via a satellite dish, that is. Tenants in federally subsidized apartments in Germantown plan to fight a directive from the Quincy Housing Authority to take down satellite dishes from outside the townhouse-style homes where they live.
Click below for full story...
ledger.southofboston.com/artic...11.txt
********** Evacuees remain in B-CS one month later
The Bryan-College Station Eagle - Sep 29 6:52 AM At least 530 Hurricane Katrina evacuees - most likely double or even triple that number - remain in Bryan and College Station one month after the storm struck Louisiana and Mississippi, officials estimated Wednesday.
Click below for full story...
www.theeagle.com/stories/0...929004.php
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Food Bank needs additional donations for recovery effort
2theadvocate.com - Sep 29 1:23 PM In the massive effort to assist those affected and displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rite, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank has distributed on average more than 53,000 pounds of food per day since Aug. 31. These donations went to first-responding organizations, directly stricken areas, shelters housing displaced evacuees and churches providing assistance for displaced families.
Click below for full story...
www.2theadvocate.com/stories...01.shtml
**********
Dean Calls on Republican Leadership to Repudiate Bill Bennett's Racist Remarks
9/29/2005 6:56:00 PM
To: National Desk, Political Reporter
Contact: Amaya Smith of the Democratic National Committee Staff, 202-863-8148
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Former Republican Secretary of Education William Bennett remarked yesterday on his radio show that, "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement:
"Bill Bennett's hateful, inflammatory remarks regarding African Americans are simply inexcusable. They are particularly unacceptable from a leader in the conservative movement and former Secretary of Education, once charged with the well being of every American school child. He should apologize immediately. This kind of statement is hardly compassionate conservatism; rather, Bennett's comments demonstrate a reprehensible racial insensitivity and ignorance. Are these the values of the Republican Party and its conservative allies? If not, President Bush, Ken Mehlman and the Republican Leadership should denounce them immediately as hateful, divisive and worthy only of scorn.
"As Americans, we should focus on the virtues that bring us together, not hatred that tears us apart and unjustly scapegoats fellow Americans."
Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org . This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp
********* PRESS RELEASE Press Release
Source: American Federation of Government Employees
AFGE Says No to Raiding Pensions and Medicare for Katrina Clean-Up
Monday September 26, 10:34 am ET
American People Need a Working Government More Than the Rich Need Their Tax Breaks, Says Union President
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of some 100 Republican members of Congress have issued a report calling for the clean-up of Hurricane Katrina to be paid for on the backs of the nation's poor and elderly, as well as the increasingly strapped middle class. The caucus, which calls itself the Republican Study Group, has issued a report on budget options under the rubric, "Operation Offset," that calls for cuts in Medicare, education and the pensions and funding of health insurance for retired public employees.
"What this group is calling for is nothing less than breaching the covenant Congress made with the federal employees who devoted their careers to serving the American people -- usually for salaries significantly less than those earned by their counterparts in the private sector," said John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). "Meanwhile, rank-and-file employees of the federal government are living in tents in Louisiana and Mississippi, wading through fetid waters, and working 12- and 16-hour shifts in order to provide relief to the citizens of the affected regions.
"And that's just for starters. All of America's elderly would suffer under the cuts for Medicare funding proposed by the Republican Study Committee. In fact, under this proposal, nearly everybody takes a significant hit -- everybody, of course, but the wealthy, who would still get their tax cuts.
Click below for full Press Release...
biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050926/dcm023.html
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