More Katrina Victims Are in Trailers

By Stacey Plaisance
The Assocated Press

Wednesday 22 November 2006

Chalmette, La. - Cradling an 18-pound turkey, Hurricane Katrina victim Nancy Prattini hauled groceries from her minivan, preparing for her family's first Thanksgiving dinner in their cramped FEMA-issued trailer.

"It won't be the same, but nothing will be the same anymore," said Prattini, who is making dinner for 12 on Thursday.

Nearly 15 months after the hurricane struck, the number of Katrina victims who will be spending Thanksgiving in FEMA trailers this year will paradoxically be far higher - roughly three times greater - than it was last year.

The reason: Many people who were living with family members or staying in hotels at government expense last year have since moved out or been evicted. But they have been unable to return to their homes because they are still waiting for their houses to be repaired, their insurance to come through, or the water and electricity to be turned back on. Or they have yet to decide whether to rebuild at all.

More than 99,000 families in Louisiana and Mississippi are living in FEMA trailers, compared with about 34,000 last November, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Biloxi, Miss., resident Jessica Lessard and her family are spending their second Thanksgiving in a FEMA trailer, but things will be different this time: FEMA just sent her family a spacious three-bedroom mobile home to replace the tiny camper they have been in for the past year.

"Thank God," Lessard said. "We can actually walk around, and we have a dining room table. It's really nice. It has six chairs."

Lessard said her family is looking forward to having room for company this Thanksgiving. "Last year, it was really rough," she said. "It was just us. We couldn't cook our turkey in the stove. It wouldn't fit. We had to take it outside and fry it."

Many of those who spent Thanksgiving in trailers last year blew the fuses while cooking or had to eat in shifts around the tiny tables. So some are making different arrangements this year.

"We're going to Disney World," said Jeff Howard, who is rebuilding his flooded St. Bernard, La., home. "We're not dealing with this again."

James Gonzales, a St. Bernard Parish firefighter who also has a bigger trailer than last year, said his wife and two children are bringing their Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings to the Chalmette firehouse, which has a full-size kitchen.

"I'll be on duty, and it's easier to cook there than in a trailer," Gonzales said.

His FEMA trailer is in a park with more than 100 others. Over the past year, he has watched families move in and out as they renovate their homes.

Even though his family is facing another holiday season in a trailer, they are in good spirits because they know this will be the last, Gonzales said. His family is scheduled to move into their newly rebuilt house by February, he said.

"I'm just grateful that I have a house to fix up," he said. "It could be worse."

Prattini, whose trailer is on the lot next to her flooded Chalmette home, agreed she has much to be grateful for despite the tight living quarters: "My kids will be here, and my grand-baby. It'll be small, but it'll be nice."



Go to Original

"Road Home" Too Long for Some New Orleanians
By Jeffrey Jones
Reuters

Thursday 23 November 2006

New Orleans - Roy Montague stood outside the government-supplied trailer in front of his New Orleans house and pointed across the street to a line of rotting homes virtually untouched since Hurricane Katrina 15 months ago.

The 60-year-old transit supervisor listed names of the mostly elderly homeowners on his Gentilly-district street and said nearly every one is waiting for thousands of dollars from a much-publicized state relief program to start repairs.

But as of this week, checks from the $7.5 billion Road Home program - centerpiece of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's recovery plans - had been issued to just 39 residents statewide, the Louisiana Recovery Authority said. That is nearly three months after the first payouts.

The wait is a big reason why the formerly leafy suburb remains in suspended animation, with many homes still bearing brown rings showing where Katrina's deadly floodwaters settled for weeks in 2005 and weeds choking lawns, Montague said.

His neighbor, Reginald Johnson, chimed in: "You've got raccoons running wild, you've got rats - the rats are unbelievable. That's why these houses are the way they are - people are waiting on the Road Home."

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged about 200,000 Louisiana homes, 123,000 severely enough to warrant eligibility for aid.

The relief program is designed to provide homeowners up to $150,000 to repair their houses or take a buyout and move. As part of a complex meeting and evaluation process, insurance settlements and other grants are deducted from the total.

Some homeowners and community activists complain delays and complexity only add to painful decisions about whether to rebuild in a city where the population is still at half pre-storm levels of 450,000.

That's especially true for low-income residents without financial wherewithal to fund rebuilding on their own, said Johnson, 41. His and Montague's Road Home meetings are not scheduled until early next year. Both have used other means to start rebuilding.

Weighing Big Decisions

State figures show more than 80,000 homeowners have applied for funds and of those, over 7,200 benefits have been calculated for an average award of $63,741.17.

The puny payout so far is partly due to applicants agonizing over whether to stay or go after learning the amount of their awards, Road Home spokeswoman Gentry Brann said.

"They have to send us back a letter that essentially says, 'Here's what my family has decided to do,'" Brann said. "There are a lot of people who don't know yet what they're going to do and are taking their time - as they rightly should, it's a big decision - and will then notify us when they're ready."

The program is on track to meet a goal of calculating 10,000 benefits by the end of the month, and authorities opened the first out-of-state assistance center earlier last week in Houston to streamline the process for evacuees, she said.

The Road Home has already been fraught with bumps. Last spring, the program, which also includes benefits for owners of rental housing, was held up in Washington as Congress debated whether to include all of Louisiana's request for recovery money in a $94 billion supplementary spending bill.

President George W. Bush signed the bill in June, and by late August, state officials predicted 42 homeowners would get compensation in the ensuing few weeks.

-------