Hancock Bank Can Teach Bush A Thing or Two

by Ana Maria

Who would have ever thought that a bank would be the anchor business for beachfront revitalization in Bay St. Louis, Miss., one of the tiny beach towns that comprise Katrina’s ground zero? Yet, that is exactly the case with Hancock Bank, Mississippi’s largest and a strong regional bank as well.

As the flagship business for renewing Bay St. Louis’ beach front/downtown/Old Town business district, Hancock Bank’s reopening provides unparalleled leadership locally and even nationally.

How’s this for a demonstration of Katrina responsiveness?

One of the bank’s officers told the celebration’s crowd of a few hundred that in the storm’s immediate aftermath, Hancock Bank took a satchel of money to some central location and began to cash checks. The bank knew that folks needed cash to buy supplies. Thoughtful, indeed. And good business, of course. But, here’s the kicker.

Hancock Bank even took IOU’s from people. That’s right. A bank in the year 2007 took IOUs from people just to get cash in their pockets so that these Katrina survivors could begin to . . . survive.

THAT’s innovation. THAT’s leadership. THAT’s responsiveness. THAT’s creativity. And that is how forward thinking, responsive leaders act, particularly when the worst natural disaster hits an area.

Hancock Bank Could Teach Bush A Thing or Two
Contrast Hancock Bank’s response with the Bush Administration that wants to know why it is that in the immediate aftermath of this same natural disaster that virtually wiped out so many cities in Katrina’s wake that city officials didn’t go through the traditional bidding process and get the least cost for the services needed. For more on that White House foolishness, read Dirt, Dead Bodies, and White House Dirt Bags.

Contrast Mississippi’s largest bank taking IOUs with Bush’s Administration that is holding out millions and millions and millions of federal reimbursement checks perhaps with an eye on outright stiffing Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama cities and towns for the clean up costs for which the federal government is supposed to pay. Compassionate, my you-know-what! [For more on Bush's Administration holding out on reimbursement funds, see When You're Up To You're Ass in Alligators and The "F" Word: FEMA.]

Bush talks compassionate, but doesn’t walk it. Hancock Bank doesn’t say anything and just takes care of the people who have helped it grow over the last century. That’s leadership.

Hancock Bank's Humble Beginnings in the Bay
Hancock Bank was founded in 1899 right here in Bay St. Louis, Miss., and its initial branch was on this very same spot along Beach Boulevard where this grand re-opening was held yesterday evening. As one bank representative said to us at the ceremony, this 100 plus beach front property has been through four major hurricanes and plenty of financial dark times for the banking industry—most notably the Great Depression and the Savings & Loan crisis during the Reagan years.

At the town hall meeting that Congressman Gene Taylor held last week, Board Chair George Schloegel told the standing room only crowd that the bank is not carrying any insurance on the building. It cannot afford the rates. Should the building be destroyed in the future, the cost of rebuilding will be spread over its multi-state branches. However, he continued, families have one home and can’t spread the costs of rebuilding or renovating their homes like Hancock Bank is able to do. Scholoegel supports Congressman Taylor’s Multiple Peril Insurance Act which adds wind coverage to the federal flood insurance program.

“Schloegel brought the house down when he remarked that the insurance companies didn’t have to hire lawyers and haul us to court to get us to pay our premiums. Why should we have to hire lawyers and haul them to court to get them to pay on our wind policy claims?!”

Great people, a great community asset, and a great business citizen in this tiny beach town. Others around the country should take note and follow its example, including the Bush Administration.

At yesterday’s celebration, I was fortunate to run into George Schloegel and told him that I just LOVED his comment on premiums and hiring lawyers. He looked down at me smiling as he told me that he just said it the way he sees it.

Ahhhh, yes. Boy am I ever home where the verbal guessing game is unnecessary. Talking with us doesn’t require reading between the lines. What you see is what you get. Period. That’s unheard of in the political and corporate circles I’ve traveled in around the country.

Celebrating in Typical Bay St. Louis Fashion
We love our music and great food. Yesterday evening’s celebration was typical Bay St. Louis complete with a live Dixieland Jazz band and two huge tables filled with plenty of great food.

The food was stupendous! None of this barely edible appetizers many try to pass off at such occasions. Absolutely, this was a veritable feast of baby tomatoes stuffed with shrimp salad, potato salad, chicken kabobs, a couple of other meats (I don’t know which because I eat seafood only), jambalaya, and a number of delicious deserts.

When I was growing up, Dixieland Jazz was definitely a favorite genre of music in our home. I remember my father telling me that when he was a young man still living with his parents on Magazine Street in New Orleans, he and his brother were forbidden from holding band practice at home. My paternal grandparents came from Italy, and my grandfather taught music—old style and old school. No, I’m not talking Motown old school. I’m talking something quite different.

Today, we learn musical notes by a letter designation. A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Back then—and yeah, it’s not quite a century ago now, my grandfather taught music Do, Re, Mi, Fa . . . which some of us learned from the Sound of Music. Trust me, it was NOT that kind of teaching. My point is that life was, well, different way back, but the attitude of the older folks toward the younger one's musical tastes remain rather similar.

My grandfather apparently wasn’t too keen on the new ways and would not permit jazz to be played in the house. “Not real music” my father would tell me his dad would say. Eventually, my grandfather allowed his sons to bring their jazz band to practice in the house on one condition. They had to tell their father when the band would be practicing so he could leave. My dad told me that his father thought jazz wasn’t “real music” and that is would be a death knell for the orchestra.

A few years back, I myself knew that I had reached the generational divide when certain songs were played and I thought, “That’s not music!!” I don’t think my grandfather was whispering to me from the grave, either.

Every generation has their musical tastes, I suppose. (But really, how can it be “music” without a good beat to dance to?! Just kidding.) Some things never change from generation to generation.

Nevertheless, for this child of a former jazz musician, listening to the Dixieland tunes being played reminded me of dancing with my father who has long since passed away. As a little girl, he would put me on his shoes and we’d dance. I love those memories.

That’s part of the magic of Hancock Bank’s reopening in the same spot it has always operated for 100 years. Coming home to memories. Clearly the bank’s decision to rebuild in the same spot has more to do with tradition, history, and a sense of community than some actuarial bean counting analysis. That’s what creates strong families, neighborhoods, communities, towns, and cities. It’s about strong memories, a sense of history, a sense of belonging.

Last night, we all belonged at that wonderful celebration. We felt a sense of community, a hopefulness, a renewed desire to rebuild our town.

With all of the celebration and laughter underneath the stars and moonlight, who would have thought that anyone there had a care in the world.

But, oh, we all have many, many cares. Katrina took away nearly everyone’s homes either completely or devastated the homes so much that it took ages to clean it up to make do while living in it as the rest was being worked on.

Katrina took away so very much, which many fear may never return in their lifetimes. Last night I was talking with a couple that I hadn’t seen in over 25 years. Now in their 60’s and 70’s, how can they start over particularly when the insurance company low balls or outright denies payment on legitimate wind claims on a policy they’ve paid premiums for years?

Our sorrows are deep, healing is slow, and payments from insurance companies slower exacerbating our sorrows and our healing.

So how can we enjoy ourselves at all? We know that life isn’t about sorrow only or happy times only. It is about how they intermingle, intertwine within our lives. Here in Bay St. Louis, Miss., we tend soothe our sorrows and celebrate our joys with great tasting food, good music in the background, and great company. That’s one of our secrets to our sanity, our generosity, our vibrant culture. That’s how we are able to survive Katrina and the betrayal from Big Insurance and Bush’s Administration.

With business sensitivity and innovation like that which Hancock Bank has shown and the internal fortitude of our residents, that's how the Bay will return to its vibrancy complete with all the festive trimmings to celebrate every milestone along the way.

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Pelosi-led group to tour Gulf Coast

Visit to put focus on region two years after disaster
By Maria Recio - McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thu, Aug. 09, 2007

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will lead a delegation of 15 House members to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Aug. 12-14 to draw attention to the region just before the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Pelosi, D-Calif., who led a group of 29 House Democrats for last year's anniversary when her party was in the minority, is looking to contrast the Democrats' active response to hurricane victims with that of the Bush administration.

Although the trip is being labeled "bipartisan," it was unclear if any Republicans would be joining the speaker.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., who will be on the trip, said that after last year's visit, "we set to work meeting with local officials, touring the region and determining the needs around infrastructure, education, health care, public safety and housing. We made a commitment to do better to help the Gulf Coast."

Hurricane Katrina hit the Crescent City and the Mississippi coast on Aug. 29, 2005, destroying homes, schools and buildings, and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents. The initial lackluster response of Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to haunt the Bush administration, but officials say they've since gotten on track.

"We're grateful for the help we've gotten, but we've still got challenges," said Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., who lost his home in Katrina.

Taylor will hold a town meeting for constituents with the visiting members to push for his signature legislation -- multiple peril federal insurance. Taylor's bill would include wind damage as part of the federal flood insurance program in order to prevent the raging legal disputes policyholders are having with insurers over whether homes were destroyed by wind or water. The House is expected to consider the bill in September.

In Louisiana, the lawmakers will visit the Lower Ninth Ward, tour the St. Bernard Health Center, visit a New Orleans school and observe the city's levee system.

Original article here.

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Winds of Change in Hurricane Season

by Ana Maria

Today marks the beginning of hurricane season. I know. You thought hurricane season began June 1st. Locally inside Katrina Land, though, we think of hurricane season in terms of when the big storms have hit us, which historically have been in August and September.

• Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans in September 1965.
• Camille hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast mid-August 1969.
• Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast on August 29th, 2005.

See the pattern? The hope, of course, is that if we are lucky enough to get to October without a major storm, the construction boom will begin, and a much more robust recovery will ensue. God, I sure hope the general perspective is accurate.

However, the biggest impediment to recovery remains the cost of insurance, as one Gulf Coast county chamber of commerce executive director said. The second impediment she mentioned is the lack of employees, which is brought on by the lack of available housing. Of course, housing is hindered by the lack of insurance: not paying the claims they owe policy holders, jacking up the costs, reducing coverage while jacking up the cost to policyholders, or cutting out of the area altogether. So, insurance remains the biggest impediment to recovery now as well as after this hurricane season blows over.

There we have it. Insurance is the big bugaboo to a vibrant, robust, rock-your-socks off post-Katrina recovery.

When I talked with a shop owner in New Orleans, she told me that neither the storm nor the levee breaks touched her store. Burglars looted it after the after levees were breached, and all chaos broke out across the city. Since then, her insurance carrier no longer offers wind insurance—only fire. Oh, it no longer offers her theft insurance—the only thing she needed to use after Katrina.

Thus the reason customers like yours truly, my niece and her little friend had to ring a door bell to get into the front door rather than the usual walking in off Magazine Street to see what kind of goodies we might like to buy. I don’t know about you, but I would imagine that installing a buzzer to let in customers may just be another barrier to a shop returning to business as usual. Another impediment to business brought to us by the good neighborly types in the insurance industry.

The industry’s pattern didn’t start with Katrina. No ma’am. For a number of years, businesses and homeowners in Florida have been suffering from this insurance affliction. Today, things remain, uh, grim. A few days ago, a Miami Herald article told a story that was quite revealing.

South Florida's business owners, like homeowners, aren't seeing relief from soaring windstorm rates.

What may be around the corner for them: rates that could double or even triple. Some insurers covering commercial property, including shops, restaurants, hotels and offices, have requested rate increases ranging from 142 percent to 225 percent. . . .

These come at a time when insurance at any price is still hard to find. The stakes are huge for South Florida's economy, fueled by thousands of small- and medium-sized companies already struggling with the slumping real estate market and high cost of living. Rising insurance premiums not only strain their balance sheets, the extra costs ripple into consumers' pockets.

Miami Herald
July 29, 2007

A taste of this week’s headlines in the Southeast—including Georgia and South Carolina—are equally telling of the state of insurance for business owners.

Alabama
• Study: Businesses hurt by rising insurance costs Mobile Press Register

Florida
• Florida's insurance crisis hitting businesses hard Miami Herald
• Little insurance relief for businesses Miami Herald
• Florida's biggest storm this summer might not be tropical. Insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty has seen the future of property insurance rates in Florida. And he's preparing for war. St. Petersburg Times
• At least that crisis is fixed - oh, wait ... St. Petersburg Times

Louisiana
• EDITORIAL: Don't gamble on coverage New Orleans Times Picayune

Mississippi
• Home insurance qualify of life issue for Coast Mississippi Press

South Carolina
• Rate hike to hit coast: Homeowners with wind pool insurance to pay an average of 35 percent more The State (Columbia, SC)
• Wind (pool) of change: State Insurance Department OKs 35 percent increase Charleston Post and Courier
• Bigger wind pool to show up in bills: Rates to increase by 35 percent on average Myrtle Beach Sun News
• Wind pool premiums to rise 35 percent (Hilton Head) Island Packet

The Winds of Change for Insurance Reform Picking Up
With the private insurance corporations abandoning American families and businesses en masse, the good news is that that business owners are hailing as a piece of much welcomed news the Multiple Peril Insurance Act that Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) authored in the House of Representatives. Last week among party lines with only a few good Republicans joining the leadership of all the Democrats, the House Financial Services Committee passed the reauthorization bill for the National Flood Insurance Program which included the multiple peril insurance act on which Taylor has been working diligently.

The multiple peril insurance act follows the Democratic House rules of fiscal responsibility—a breath of fresh air after years of Republican spending like a bunch of drunken sailors. Speaker Pelosi demands that new legislation pay for itself, and Taylor’s bill does just that. So anyone who starts yammering to the contrary is, well, full of hot air. Thankfully, the winds of change for insurance reform are picking up speed.

A Miami Herald editorial stated, “One bit of potential good news: Insurance reform is on the Washington agenda.

Another Miami Herald piece reported

“A development last week in Washington could potentially help very small businesses. A U.S. House committee passed a bill that would extend the National Flood Insurance Program to include windstorm protection, although the proposed coverage limits for businesses are low. The bill faces stiff resistance from Republicans, insurers . . . and [r]elief can't come soon enough for many businesses.”

Little insurance relief for businesses
Businesses are finding little relief
in the commercial insurance market:
Rates are still high, and windstorm coverage is scarce.
Miami Herald
July 29, 200

Business owners, particularly small and medium-sized ones, are getting on board to push for insurance relief. These owners are a critical ally in our success to pass this important proposed legislation in the House of Representatives.

If either you or someone you know is a business owner or an employee of a small to medium-sized business, then by all means, mention this critical piece of information when contacting your congressional representatives. They need to know that the multiple peril insurance part of the bill has wide spread support from business owners as well as homeowners.

''Insurance is the oil that keeps the economy going. You couldn't build anything or run a business without it. But it's very frustrating now to find the coverage clients need.''

Pablo Conde
president of A&A Underwriters in Miami

Today’s political hell raising activities are to contact (again, if that is the case) our congressional representatives. When we do, we'll tell them we are voters in their districts. If we are a business owner or work for a small to medium sized business, let's be sure to mention it as well.

Heck, small businesses are the engine that runs our economy. Anything we do to keep those businesses running and keeping their employees on the payroll will assist in putting good food on the tables of America’s families. Having a well-fed nation of people is a good thing—inside and out of hurricane season.


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House panel votes to add wind coverage

by Sean Reilly
Mobile Press Register Washington Bureau
Original article published on July 27, 2007.

WASHINGTON -- The House Financial Services Committee agreed Thursday to add optional wind coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program, brushing aside objections that such a major step needed more study.

The bill by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., would also increase overall coverage limits, phase out subsidized flood insurance rates for businesses and vacation homes, and authorize spending up to $400 million annually for the next five years to pay for flood map updates.

The subsidized rates generally apply to structures built before the early 1970s. For vacation homes in that category, the bill would allow flood insurance administrators to raise rates by 25 percent annually until the full risk-based premium is reached. For subsidized business structures, rate increases of 20 percent annually would be permitted.

In voting 38-29 to send the bill to the full House, the committee broke largely along party lines, with Democrats solidly in support and most Republicans opposed. In arguing for the addition of wind coverage, Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., pointed to the wave of "wind" vs. "water" disputes that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

For full discussion of the famed "wind vs water" argument, see Wind? Water? More Like a Bunch of Hot Air!


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Federal plan would cover windstorms

A House panel OK'd expanding an insurance program to cover wind damage -- which could bring comfort to Florida residents -- but the plan has Republican critics.
BY MARIA RECIO
mrecio@mcclatchydc.com
(Miami Herald version)
Original published on July 27, 2007.

WASHINGTON --A bill beginning to move through the U.S. House could dramatically change the way windstorm insurance is sold in Florida and other hurricane-prone coastal states.

The House Financial Services Committee voted 38-29 on Thursday to expand the national flood insurance program to cover wind damage. Other proposals floating around Washington would create national catastrophe funds to cover many perils, but this one is focused squarely on hurricane risk.

To be sure, the bill faces stiff opposition ahead -- particularly from Republicans. It could get a floor vote when the House returns from recess in September and, if it passes, would have to prevail in the Senate and get past the White House.
Committee member U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said he supports the legislation and thinks it would help ease the state's windstorm woes but would not completely solve the insurance crisis.

''This could provide some relief for some people, but I still think we need to take additional steps to reduce insurance costs,'' Klein said.

Read the Miami Herald article.

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With Katrina's Wind at Our Backs, We're Blowing Through Congress!!

by Ana Maria

With a force seemingly more powerful than that of Katrina herself, the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee passed the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007 keeping in tact the Multiple Peril Insurance Act that had recently been attached to it. In every day language, this means that the Democratically-controlled Congress just took a major step forward in protecting the 55% of Americans who live within 50 miles of the nation’s beautiful coastline. Score one for American families and businesses!


This began nearly two years ago with the insurance companies apparently devising a scheme though which to rip off Mr. and Ms. Home or Business Owners who had just been through the nightmarish Hurricane Katrina with her 22 tornadoes and winds at landfall that were at least 135 miles per hour. Katrina's winds beat down residences and businesses for up to three to four hours. Insurance companies like State Farm, Nationwide, and Allstate directed their agents that if so much as a smidgen of water were on the property to blame all the sustained damage on water.

Those directives and the subsequent documentation on how they were carried out are the foundation for the racketeering (RICO) lawsuit that the Scruggs Katrina Group filed against State Farm and its two corporate partners. [See State Farm, Partners, and RICO: What a Racket! It's another piece I did. You'll love it.]

ABC News was able to obtain a copy from State Farm files of the original FAEC [Forensic Analysis & Engineering Corp.] damage report, which included the image of an attached "Post-it" note that read, "Put in wind file - do not pay bill - do not discuss"

Image at ABC's The Blotter.

The agents for the federal government’s flood insurance program were the very same agents for State Farm, Nationwide, and Allstate and the like. Insurance companies handed down their directives: Do the paper work shuffle, leave your conscience at the door that Katrina blew away, and deliver the bad news to Mr. and Ms Home or Business Owners.

Routinely, the news went something like this.

Mr. and Ms. Homeowner, your wind policy on your homeowner’s insurance won’t pay for any damage. We want to keep to ourselves the $108 billion in profits our industry will make in 2005 and 2006. We have faith that you’ll be ok in spite of our reckless, selfish, irresponsible behavior. We’re greedy bastards who show up religiously at church. We’ll be praying for ya! Do I hear an amen! God bless.

Well, we have been blessed. We have Gulf Coast Representative Gene Taylor (D-MS), a heroic congressman who lost everything in Katrina, whose insurance company screwed over him and his family with failing to pay a penny before resorting to a lawsuit, whose own constituents were experiencing the same level of anguish that he and his family were experiencing.

We are blessed because Congressman Gene Taylor pulled out from the depths of his soul an indefatigable strength to carry on personally and professionally to champion this cause to ensure that America’s families and businesses all over the country never again are exposed to the ravages of corporate greed that has become so apparent in our nation’s insurance industry. To that I say Amen!

President Bill Clinton said something along these lines, “There isn’t anything wrong with America that can’t be made better by what’s right with America.” What is happening with this insurance reform bill is a fantastic example of Clinton’s wise words.

We are blessed because down here in Katrina Land, we reflect the rich tapestry that makes our nation envied the world over. We are of African, European, and Asian descent. We come from Central and South America. Our music is lively and soulful. Our food is hot, strong, and spicy. Our determination to persevere is strong.

To achieve the justice that every home and business owner in America requires in the aftermath of a natural disaster will require that all of us remain determined to persevere through the laborious and slow legislative process that is our form our government.

We can achieve this. The first step is to believe we deserve it. We do deserve it, and now we must embrace that very idea. The second is to believe that it is possible. We have proof that it is. The vote in subcommittee last week—along party lines, I might add, and the vote yesterday—again along party lines with a few conscientious Republicans joining the leadership of every Democrat on the committee. We have achieved step two.

The next step is to take concerted steps in the direction of this legislative dream. You know what that means! It’s political hell raising time. Woohoo! The very next vote will be in the entire chamber of the House of Representatives. It could be as soon as next week before the congress breaks for its August recess. We can say that to achieve our political dreams, we must engage in a bit of political hell raising. What fun!

In the aftermath of Katrina, with the malice of forethought the insurance industry engaged in deceptive practices intent to steal from American home and business owners the benefits that they had paid to have. Through our own political hell raising, we can end the deceptive financial charade of the insurance industry.

We must contact our own congressional representatives and let him or her know that we support the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007 ESPECIALLY because it includes the Multiple Peril Insurance Act which protects America’s families and businesses.

Sharing our perspective on this critical matter is how we protect our families through expanding the flood insurance program to include wind coverage. Sharing our perspective is how we put a gust of powerful wind under our political sails—and sail into the next round of legislative victories for ourselves, our families, and our businesses.

[Here are political hell raising email and phone activities.]

If you enjoyed this, you may also wish to read . . .
Bookies, Pimps, and Insurance Companies.
Commercial insurance rates will crush small businesses

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TAYLOR'S CRUSADE WINS ONE

Flood program expansion approved by House panel

By MARIA RECIO
SUN HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The House Financial Services Committee voted Thursday to make a dramatic change in federal disaster insurance by expanding the national flood insurance program to cover wind damage.

The 38-29 vote, largely along party lines, in favor of the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007 was spurred by a pledge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made after Hurricane Katrina to the coastal communities of Mississippi and Louisiana.

Pelosi will lead a bipartisan delegation to the region in mid-August before the second anniversary of the hurricane, appearing at Bay St. Louis' Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church on Aug. 13.

The vote is a personal victory for Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, who lost his home in Katrina. Taylor has made it a crusade to explain to members how the current system creates a shortfall with private insurance companies covering wind damage and the federal government covering water, resulting in a bias by insurers who administer the flood program to label all damage "water."

"This really helps people in all coastal areas," said Taylor, noting residents in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Maine and New York would be able to purchase the expanded coverage, as well as in his home state of Mississippi. "Fifty percent of all Americans live in coastal areas."

Under the committee-approved bill, policyholders of the flood insurance program would be able to purchase wind insurance policies as well. The policies would not be available for those seeking exclusively wind coverage.

The multiple-peril residential policy limit would be set at $500,000 for the structure and $150,000 for contents. The bill increases the maximum coverage for flood insurance policies from $250,000 to $335,000 for residences.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said the expanded program would pay for itself through actuarially determined premiums. "What does it cost (taxpayers)? Nothing," said Frank. "It is revenue neutral." He said the bill was necessary because "in the Gulf situation, it was difficult to tell, if not impossible, wind damage."

The legislation encountered stiff resistance from Republicans who said it exposed the federal government to steep liability at a time when the insurance fund was essentially bankrupt. Insurers and consumer groups are opposed to the expansion, warning losses will dramatically increase as claims rise.

"I am not ready to support shifting the burden of wind damage to a plan that is nearly $18 billion in the red," said Rep. Spencer Bacchus, R-Ala., the committee's ranking Republican. The flood insurance program had to borrow $17.5 billion more than it took in because of Katrina-Rita claims.

The legislation makes reforms in the program, increases premiums, phases out subsidized rates paid by vacation-home owners and raises the borrowing authority.

Republican members offered several amendments stripping or delaying the wind provision from the bill, but they were defeated. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., who opposed the addition of wind coverage until Congress studies the issue further, complained the controversy could sink the legislation.

"This is really adding a poison pill to flood insurance reform bill," said Biggert. Frank acknowledged the bill was controversial but said it would be ready for a floor vote in September.
Taylor predicted the bill would pass on the House floor and hopes in the Senate he can turn to Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., who also lost his home to Katrina
Democrats, led by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., chair of the panel's housing and community opportunity subcommittee, recently attached the language from Taylor's bill on "multiple perils" to the flood insurance reauthorization bill.

But Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, questioned whether the plan would stay budget-neutral. "I know from experience that these designs don't always work out the way they're supposed to." He said, "I'm still not convinced the private insurance market won't work."

Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., countered that the post-Katrina insurance response "was a massive failure of the private sector. There are still people down there who haven't been paid."

Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007 Here are the key features of H.R. 3121:

• Increases the amount FEMA can raise policy rates in any given year from 10 percent to 15 percent.
• Extends multiple-peril policies for wind damage where local governments agree to adopt and enforce building codes and standards designed to minimize wind damage.
• Allows any community participating in the flood insurance program to opt in to the multiple-peril option. The multiple-peril residential-policy limit is $500,000 for the structure and $150,000 for contents. Nonresidential properties could be covered to $1 million for structure and $750,000 for contents and business interruption.
• Increases the maximum coverage limits for flood insurance policies. New coverage limits would be $335,000 for residences, $135,000 for residential contents, and $670,000 for businesses and churches.
• Phases in actuarial rates for vacation homes and nonresidential properties beginning Jan. 1, 2011.

HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE

Original article at Sun Herald published July 27, 2007.



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Dirt, Dead Bodies, and White House Dirt Bags

by Ana Maria



Cities, counties and parishes (Louisiana’s version of counties) have been fighting with the Office of Inspector General over the federal government’s stinginess when it comes to reimbursing local governments for funds they spent on the Katrina’s clean up. My piece titled When You’re Up to Your Ass in Alligators discussed the incredible financial burden that the locals have undergone because the federal government—i.e. the Bush Administration— is making it unreasonably difficult to obtain the millions and millions of federal tax dollars that are to reimburse these funds.

Perhaps this is the administration’s unstated “hang ‘em out to dry” philosophy in action. Clearly, the net result is to have abandoned Americans in their time of need. Whether the Administration abandoned those who climbed on the roofs after the levees broke in New Orleans or those who climbed through the muck and mud to coordinate the post-Katrina clean up efforts, the way the Bush Administration continues to treat us sure does feel like this is part of the White House’s “leave all citizens behind” philosophy in action.

The stories I hear about how Bush’s FEMA and the Office of Inspector General have treated the officials who had to make do in the worst of circumstances makes my blood boil. The drone-like responses coming from agencies lead by those who rose to power through proclaiming their compassion burn me up. I’ll share a story with you.

Picture it. August 30th 2007. The day after the worst natural disaster our nation has ever seen. No phone system. Cars awash in salt water and totaled. Roadways filled with mounds of debris. No electricity. No uncomtaminated running water. For many, no place to live. Dirt, mud, and sludge many feet deep inside buildings and on the streets.

Let me clarify that. By dirt, I’m not talking about the dry fertile soil that we spread on our lawns or use in flower and vegetable gardens. No, when folks around here tell me their dirt stories, they are referring to what I would term sludge and mud.

Of course, there was no safe water to drink, cook, or bathe and shower in. One of my older brothers told me that for weeks he would fill water bottles and sit them out in the sun with a bit of bleach in them to kill off the germs. At night, his water bottles would be warm, and he would take a make shift shower. Perhaps smelling of bleach, the water was at least clean and uncontaminated.

He recalls that when he saw others he knew were just using water out of the tap, they had developed various whelps and other unsightly skin problems. The water situation went on like this for about three weeks.

Family members, friends, and co-workers were desperate to talk with folks inside the Katrina region. Those here wanted to communicate to the outside world. No phones. No email. No Internet. No roads. No cars. Life was more than tough for all concerned.

Many local jurisdictions found themselves in dire straights in the hours and days after the storm passed. Disparate officials were forced to call the shots because the properly designated ones were unavailable. Maybe they brought their own families out of town or out of state. Maybe they were dead. Maybe they were busy trying to dig themselves out of their destroyed homes. Who knows?

Communication was almost nonexistent. Cell phone usage was restricted to the beach area and that was sporadic coverage, at best. If someone was located miles and miles and miles from the beach without any transportation—which was the case with lots of people, using a cell phone was a luxury to which they had no real access.

You know, one thing that is glaringly obvious is the lack of an emergency communication system. With all of its hoopla about homeland security, the Bush Administration apparently chose not to invest in the country’s back up emergency communication system. So when Katrina knocked down cell phone towers and ripped up traditional phone lines, communicating within the storm-ravaged region became a scarce commodity.

Of course, without electricity to maintain the charge, having even scant cell phone coverage became irrelevant when the batteries ran out. Car chargers, you say? Cars sat for hours in many, many feet of salt water which ruined the engines. Car chargers were out.

Many of us take for granted access to email and the Internet. However, computers were not spared the ravages of Katrina’s destruction either. Even if they had survived, no one had access to the Internet.

In the middle of all the chaos involving dirt and dead bodies, local officials were scattered to the winds.

One public high school, I’ve been told, had about four feet of dirt and sludge inside its buildings. For days on end, local officials—the ones that were here and available—and the Florida Army and National Guard were pulling dead bodies out of the sludge inside of the high school’s buildings.

None of this mattered to one federal official whose compassionless demeanor clearly sent the message that he couldn’t have cared less. We were lucky that the few who were around didn’t pull the bureaucratic “It’s not in my job description” routine.

Nevertheless, the federal yahoo looked these brave souls in the eye and said, “You didn’t follow FEMA rules.” They responded that they didn’t know the rules, that they were waist deep in dirt digging bodies out of the mud. The yahoo said that they should have called FEMA. The local officials informed Mr. Yahoo that the phones didn’t work.

Yahoo’s next bright idea came out. “Well you should have downloaded it off of the Internet. It’s on the website.” Apparently this one—like too many others—was not the brightest bulb in the bunch. When the local officials patiently explained that the place had no access to computers or the Internet, the yahoo looked at them incredulously as if to say, “not my problem.” He informed the officials that they should have downloaded the policies beforehand.

Mr. Not-So-Bright-Bulb didn’t take into consideration what life was like in Katrina’s aftermath. Between Katrina’s 135 mph or more winds blowing away so much during the three to four hours it battered the coast before the water came ashore and the 22 documented tornados, to say that homes and offices, businesses and schools were scattered to the winds may actually be an understatement in these circumstances.

What do you think? Would Mr. Not-So-Bright Bulb and his compassionless co-workers have said similar insane things to the survivors of India’s tsunami?

Compassionless. The word resonates with how the feds have treated us.

Mr. Not-So-Bright didn’t care that public officials were trudging through several feet of dirt throughout the area pulling out dead bodies ,dealing with a population in shock, all the while doing their best to take good care of their own families.

All I have to say about this is that my own family and friends down here may have been up to their eyeballs in dirt and dead bodies. But the real dirt bags came here as members of the Bush Administration’s compassionless crew.

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Fake Emergency Management . . . Again

Rows of trailers for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina line the Renaissance Village trailer park in Baker, La. Trailers like these have been found to contain high levels of formaldehyde.

(By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)

by Ana Maria

Bush's FEMA, the agency responsible for handling disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, has itself been disastrous. As catastrophic as Katrina’s damage has been for everyone from New Orleans through the Mississippi Gulf Coast to Alabama, nothing—and I mean nothing—comes close to the catastrophe that Bush’s FEMA embodies in terms of its deliberate neglect, callous disregard, and compassionless actions toward those whom Katrina impacted.

After being publicly castigated for deliberately ignoring reports regarding the enormous toxic levels of formaldehyde inside the trailers that house Katrina’s survivors, the Bush Administration’s latest chief FEMA buffoon has announced that the agency would—finally—begin testing the trailers.

The agency’s own on-the-ground reports had long ago informed FEMA’s upper management that the trailers were causing significant health problems. In fact, the agency’s attorneys have known since early 2006 that these sardine can sized trailers were toxic to the degree of being 75 times the healthy level. From the onset, on-the-ground FEMA employees pushed for testing. So, what directive came down from one of the attorneys with Bush’s FEMA?

"Do not initiate any testing until we give the OK. . . . Once you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."

This FEMA attorney apparently missed the part of law school that would have informed him that being told of the problem automatically put him on notice. At that point, he should have acted. Period. It’s like trying to put toothpaste back into the tube. It’s doesn’t work. You cannot un-ring the bell, bucko.

The “reasonable man theory” might apply to the situation. What would a reasonable man or woman do under these circumstances? Now, the word to focus on is reasonable as most of us would agree upon its meaning.

A reasonable individual could conclude the following.

1. The trailers may be posing health risks to the families living in them.
2. FEMA’s responsible for protecting the health and welfare of these families.
3. FEMA should quickly provide appropriate and rigorous tests to determine the extent to which formaldehyde levels exist in the trailers.
4. Once the tests confirmed the toxic levels of formaldehyde, FEMA must immediately determine the remedy for the situation including providing alternative housing that would be safe and healthy.

So what would a reasonable man or woman do as a result of these conclusions? Test the trailers with the best testing equipment and personnel available. After all, the health and safety of those living in the trailers is paramount.

Instead, FEMA’s upper management told its on-the-ground employees to turn a blind eye to the unnecessary suffering of these families living in the formaldehyde-filled trailers within the Katrina-ravaged region.

The Washington Post reported

A trail of e-mails obtained by investigators shows that the agency's lawyers rejected a proposal for systematic testing of the levels of potentially cancer-causing formaldehyde gas in the trailers, out of concern that the agency would be legally liable for any hazards or health problems. As many as 120,000 families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita lived in the suspect trailers, and hundreds have complained of ill effects.

How utterly irresponsible, compassionless, vile and contemptible Bush’s FEMA continues to be.

FEMA Resentfully Relents
Only after being verbally lashed at a very public congressional hearing last Thursday did FEMA’s leadership announce it had capitulated to the demands that it live up to its responsibilities. This, too, appears to be a continuation of the administration’s PR scam.

From the new flyer it is providing the residents living in the formaldehyde-filled trailers to the false and misleading information on its website, FEMA exhibits a vile contempt for us, the American people.

With great interest did I read FEMA’s new flyer. In keeping with the deceptive PR practices so prevalent with the Bush crew, this flyer is exceedingly misleading. First they try to pretend that formaldehyde is as common as oxygen and then to blame on dust, mold, or smoke the symptoms toxic levels of formaldehyde can produce.

“Formaldehyde is a common indoor air pollutant that can be found in nearly all homes and buildings.”

“. . . your symptoms could be from indoor pollutants that may include formaldehyde or other indoor pollutants, such as dust, mold or smoke. ”

If the Bush Administration were serious about rectifying this situation, if it were serious about accurately educating the American public about the potentially hazardous nature of the government-provided housing, then it would provide clear and convincing language to instruct these residents to seek medical treatment immediately.

But, the Bushies are not serious about anything other than lining their own pockets and, with government sweet heart deals, the pockets of their big wig friends.

Abroad, the Bush Administration hands out multi-billion dollar, no bid contracts to companies like Cheney’s Halliburton. Here at home, Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) exposed the Katrina fraud involving Bush supporter Riley Bechtel who received “$16,000 to haul a trailer the last 70 miles from Purvis, Miss., down to the Gulf Coast, hook it up to a garden hose, hook it up to a sewer tap, and plug it in. $16,000.”

Who this administration hurts with its price gouging, deceptive practices, and elimination of our governmental infrastructure is irrelevant to them. The Bushies cloak themselves in Old Glory and hide behind language central to the Christian faith as they fake being men and women who receive special delivery messages from heaven. Oh, I’m sure they get messages. However, I’m equally certain that they have grossly misinterpreted those messages.

Yep, the Bushies fake a lot of things like patriotism and religiosity. Now, the Bush Administration is faking any appearance of a serious mea culpa on the part of FEMA’s deliberate – what was that phrase the Democratic Congressional Committee Chair used? Ahhh, yes! Chairman Waxman termed it “premeditated ignorance.”

FEMA’s Website: A Portal of False and Misleading Information
FEMA’s website is riddled with false, inaccurate, and deceptive language with regard to formaldehyde-filled FEMA trailers. As a result, the information on FEMA’s website misleads the American public. Let’s look at three examples which highlight FEMA Director Paulison’s failure to ensure that all deceptive pieces of information regarding his agency’s formaldehyde-filled trailers were taken down.

Example 1
On FEMA’s homepage under “FEMA Continues To Address Formaldehyde Concerns” the following sentence remains.

“Although tests of air samples from travel trailers in the Gulf Coast have demonstrated that ventilating the units is effective in reducing levels of formaldehyde.”

Of course, FEMA fails to tell the WHOLE truth of their pitiful previous “air samples”. Last week, TIME Magazine reported on the pitifully pathetic way that the Bush folks conducted its “tests.”

“Trailers were left with windows ajar, air conditioning on and all vents open for days before interior air levels were tested for the gas — conditions that did not nearly approximate actual living conditions.”

Example 2
On FEMA’s website, Paulison has left intact deviously misleading information on the health hazards of formaldehyde as well as its remedy. In its set of frequently asked questions (FAQ) titled FEMA Actions to Minimize Formaldehyde in Travel Trailers, FEMA’s questions #2 and #3 are of particular note.

2. I thought FEMA had already done a travel trailer study.

Yes. Last summer the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agency for Toxic Substances and the CDC’s Disease Registry testing of air samples from travel trailers. That study showed that ventilating the units is effective in reducing levels of formaldehyde. However, FEMA believes additional research is needed to address
concerns about the health effects of living in travel trailers for prolonged periods of time. [Emphasis added.]

What?! The so-called study was no study at all, and the conclusions based on it are ready for prime time amateur hour! The fact of the matter is that the Clarion-Ledger, the daily paper in Jackson, Miss., which is the capitol of the state, reported "Becky Gillette, vice chairwoman of the Mississippi chapter of the Sierra Club, said testing of some FEMA trailers and mobile homes showed elevated levels of formaldehyde, even in those that have been aired out for months.” [Emphasis added.]

The answer to FEMA’s question #3 blames the residents for creating the toxic formaldehyde levels that are 75 times the healthy level.

3. What will the new study do?

The study will involve testing actual air quality conditions in travel trailers when they are used for longer periods of time under real-life conditions. In the study conducted last, the testing was done in new, unoccupied trailers so that we could determine formaldehyde levels in the units themselves, excluding any changes related to activities by the occupants, such as smoking.

Smoking causes formaldehyde to jump to 75 times the healthy level? Again, Bush’s FEMA folks are prime time for amateur hour. Get them off the government payroll!

Example 3
On FEMA’s website is a piece titled Statement On Travel Trailers and Formaldehyde. In it, Bush’s agency retains more reality-free material through which to mislead the American public seeking factually-based information.

Our investigation of formaldehyde and travel trailers indicates that ventilating the units can significantly reduce levels of formaldehyde emissions.

The Sierra Club’s testing disputes the Bush Administration’s assertion.

Once again, Bush’s government betrays our trust and jeopardizes our health and welfare. So what can we do about this situation?

Today’s Political Hell Raising Activity has us contact FEMA Director Paulison’s office to demand the removal of all the false and misleading information regarding the agency’s formaldehyde-filled trailers. Let’s bombard his office with calls so much so that we interrupt their routine.

That is our point. To interrupt their routine of deception, deviousness, and callous disregard for the health and safety of the families living in the FEMA trailers.

Our point is to call the director's office and tell the FEMA staff member at the other end of the call that we want the government website that our tax dollars pay for to be based upon reality and not someone’s fantasy.

While FEMA’s upper management is faking emergency management . . . again, we can demonstrate that we’re fully engaged citizens who will take out 3-5 minutes to live up to our end of the democratic bargain that is the great American experiment in representative democracy. Nothing fake about that. All very real.

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New report by Corps: Who Flooded New Orleans?

Friday, July 13th, 2007

The Hurricane Protection Decision Chronology, a report financed by the US Army Corps of Engineers was released this week detailing all the decisions leading to the flimsy flood protection that New Orleans depended on when Katrina came ashore. The Chronology report proves yet again that the citizens of New Orleans and the nation’s taxpayers deserve the 8/29 Commission, the brainchild of Levees.Org. Here’s why:

1. The Corps of Engineers financed this study. Since the Corps is the sole agency responsible for the design and the construction of the Greater New Orleans’ flood protection, this means the Corps was intimately involved in the investigation of their own work. If you investigate yourself, what do you think you’re going to find?

2. The Corps’ press release stated that the Corps of Engineers was allowed to review the report before it was released for “errors in logic!” You call that independent?

3. Most interesting to me is a sub-report “Local Sponsor Roles” which apparently had been withheld since August 2006, had conclusions which contradicted the main report (found on the last page of Appendix E). The report on Local Sponsor Roles wasn’t nearly so critical of the historic Orleans Levee District as the main report. And besides, why had the report been withheld until now?

The citizens of Louisiana and the nation deserve better. Please click on this link and send a letter to your Members of Congress demanding the 8/29 Commission, an independent analysis of the flood protection failures in Greater New Orleans.

Sandy Rosenthal
www.levees.org

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FEMA to test for chemicals in trailers

Posted on Sat, Jul. 21, 2007
FROM STAFF & WIRE REPORTS

The day after a House oversight committee discovered that FEMA had sloughed off reports that trailers provided to Katrina evacuees had dangerous levels of toxic chemicals, FEMA's chief said testing of trailers would begin Tuesday.

Evacuees have long speculated their health troubles were made worse by formaldehyde in the trailers, a notion bolstered this week with congressional testimony that FEMA knew about the threat but didn't investigate it. Hurricane victims living in government trailers on the Coast have said for nearly two years that they're getting sick from the trailers, but couldn't persuade FEMA to do any tests.

In a statement late Friday, FEMA administrator R. David Paulison said the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Health Affairs will conduct a preliminary field study that will test air quality conditions in "FEMA-purchased housing units under real-life conditions."

Paulison said testing would begin Tuesday.

"We are also looking into engineering solutions that may be available effectively to remove environmental pollutants from the trailers," he said.

In addition, he said FEMA would begin distributing a fact sheet today on formaldehyde and housing to the occupants of each FEMA travel trailer and mobile home in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.

"This fact sheet will provide basic information about formaldehyde, its possible medical effects and contacts for further assistance," he said.

The new brochure also is available online at sunherald.com.

Also today, FEMA will open a toll-free telephone line with operators from the CDC and FEMA available to answer questions about the formaldehyde issue and associated FEMA housing concerns, he said. The toll-free number is 1-866-562-2381.

FEMA provided more than 120,000 trailers to people displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Thousands of people still live in them, mostly in Mississippi and Louisiana.

On Thursday, documents released to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee showed FEMA lawyers discouraged the agency from pursuing reports the trailers had dangerous levels of formaldehyde, a chemical that can cause respiratory problems.

The formaldehyde complaints had sparked lawsuits before the congressional hearing, and more are likely.

In May, the Mississippi chapter of the Sierra Club issued a nonscientific report saying its tests revealed high formaldehyde emissions in dozens of trailers in Mississippi and Louisiana.
FEMA's response to questions from the Sun Herald at the time of the Sierra Club testing fly in the face of facts revealed in Thursday's congressional hearing.

The Sun Herald originally published the story on July 21, 2007.

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Video: Congressman Steve Cohen Holding FEMA Accountable

by Ana Maria

Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) gave a passionate speech on the floor of the House of Representatives ripping Bush's FEMA for wasting millions and millions of taxpayer dollars purchasing, storing, and melting ice intended for hurricane victims.

Congressman Cohen was elected November 2006 and represents Tennessee's 9th congressional district in which the city of Memphis is located. Cohen has a lifelong, unparalleled "record of vigorous, passionate, honest and unselfish service" who "consistently stands up for the people who elected him, not for special interests.

Congressman Cohen has a well-deserved reputation for standing up and speaking out on important issues." Here are more YouTube Videos of Congressman Steve Cohen speaking out on other important issues.

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FEMA trailers: Why was action so tardy?

July 20, 2007

Is the federal government only now getting the message that FEMA trailers might be hazardous to health?

For nearly a year, clarionledger.com StoryChat posters discussed the issue under the topic "Are FEMA trailers 'toxic tin cans?'" until the subject petered out.

It was based on a news report of the same title that ran on MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14011193/) in July 2006 and was mentioned in editorials since then about Katrina recovery in The Clarion-Ledger.

It has been no secret, for sure.

Yet, now, suddenly, it seems, the federal government is starting to pay attention - and pass the buck.

Fourth District U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor in February asked the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for a "detailed investigation" into whether formaldehyde in trailers was causing an outbreak of respiratory illnesses.

While acknowledging high enough levels of formaldehyde "to cause irritation to eyes, nose and/or throat," CDC and FEMA suggested the effects can be avoided simply by airing out the trailers.

That's not much reassurance for the 65,900 Hurricane Katrina victims still housed in about 24,400 of the trailers in Mississippi - nor, perhaps, should it be to the Native American tribes Congress has authorized the units to be shipped to as cheap housing for reservations.

Congress should investigate for certain if the homes are "toxic tin cans" and how it came to be - and punish those responsible, including repaying taxpayers. Safety of citizens should come first.

Read original at Clarion Ledger.

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Insurance: Catastrophic coverage the answer?

July 20, 2007

Fourth District U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor may have an answer for providing affordable coverage for Mississippi Gulf Coast residents and businesses.

His bill, HR 920, to expand federal flood insurance to include wind damage was the subject of three hours of debate before a congressional subcommittee Tuesday and, despite vehement opposition by the insurance industry, seemed to win support.

His Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007 received a boost by a letter sent to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity by Gov. Haley Barbour in support of the bill.

"Hurricane Katrina demonstrated holes in the private insurance market and the National Flood Insurance Program and I support Congress considering legislation which would create a new program in the National Flood Insurance Program to enable the purchase of wind and flood risk in one policy," Barbour's letter said.

Calling it "a failed system," Barbour said the Coast's recovery has suffered because private wind coverage is scarce and premiums in the state's insurance of last resort, the wind pool, or Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association, have skyrocketed.

As shown by The Clarion-Ledger's May report "Rebuilding the Coast," until insurance issues are solved, recovery will lag.

Gov. Barbour's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal in its report, After Katrina: Building Back Better Than Ever (www.governorscommission.com), offered a tremendous blueprint in the wake of the storm. But efforts have been stymied by the lack of available and affordable insurance.

"Greed is the main disconnect in this situation," said Taylor, according to the Gulfport/Biloxi Sun Herald newspaper.

"It's easy for them to walk around in their Gucci suits and defend their companies, but the reality is down there on the Gulf Coast, where all of the destroyed homes and property of my constituents are," Taylor said. "Of course, these companies don't want to change the rules that are currently in their favor."

A vote by the subcommittee on the bill to move it to the full House could come before the August recess.

Posters in clarionledger.com's StoryChat Mississippi Insurance Forum are already debating the potential effects of such a bill.

Said one: "Haley has been right on the money for every key Coast issue and we need to encourage him to help get HR 920 passed. If it passes, the Coast will boom and Mississippi will never be last again."

Original article at Clarion-Ledger.

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Toxic trailers affecting health, well-being

SUSAN WALSH/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FEMA Administrator David Paulison, center, listens as former FEMA trailer occupant Paul Stewart, left, testifies before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on his health problems while living in a FEMA trailer after Hurricane Katrina. Lindsay Huckabee, who also lives in a FEMA trailer, is at right.

By BRANDON PARKER and MICHAEL A. BELL
SUN HERALD

At work and at home, Kathy James and Patricia Spain said they are constantly breathing in formaldehyde.

The women work for the Department of Human Services, where temporary trailers were erected after Hurricane Katrina damaged the facility. The women also live in FEMA trailers.

When they leave for work in the mornings, the one thing they can't forget is to open the windows.

"If not, if closed up during the summer, oh, gosh, you open that doors, it's like 'whew - that chemical smell'," said James, a 47-year-old Pass Christian resident.

"It's like when you can't breathe through your nose," she said of some of the symptoms she experiences. "Just a sore throat feeling... . like you have a sinus infection."

The problems began as soon as James moved into her trailer in December 2005. Two months earlier, Spain, 56, moved into her FEMA trailer and experienced similar symptoms.

"I do have sinus infections," she said, adding she constantly is fatigued and is unable to complete simple tasks. Asked to elaborate on how it affects her personally, she said she becomes depressed. "I just stay that way," she said.

"I know... this won't last forever," Spain said. "But that's not the way that I feel."

In Washington on Thursday, the House subcommittee on Oversight and Government Reform heard tales like these that supported their findings that FEMA lawyers discouraged investigations of high formaldehyde levels in Coast FEMA trailers.
Subcommittee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., called the situation "sickening."

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., said he sent a letter Feb. 22 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when he heard about the formaldehyde complaints. After not receiving a response until the end of May, Taylor said he knew the FEMA trailer program was in deep trouble.

"FEMA's trailer program has been so horribly mismanaged, I feel inadequate in finding the words to describe it," he said Thursday. "We've tried to work with them in every instance and show them better and more efficient ways to do things, but they have just ignored our efforts.

"This is just another example of a really inept response to the nation's worst natural disaster," he continued. "As someone who represents southern Mississippi, we are still grateful for trailers that were paid for and provided. But we also know the value of a dollar, so we wanted to see things done in [an] efficient and fair manner."

Asked how lawmakers can get FEMA to admit responsibility, Taylor said, "the only way they'll admit the mistake is if you embarrass them."

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., has grown accustomed to the post-Katrina woes of the embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"If the allegations are true, it unfortunately wouldn't be too surprising to South Mississippians, who've had firsthand experience with FEMA since Katrina," said Lee Youngblood, a spokesman for Lott.

"Sen. Lott still believes in many respects (that FEMA) remains a big, out-of-control federal bureaucracy with too much red tape and not enough people willing to take responsibility."

Waxman echoed Lott's demand that those responsible be held accountable.
He said the committee's documents revealed "mistakes and misjudgments."

"We need to learn from them to identify what needs to be fixed to protect the health of the thousands of families still living in FEMA trailers," he said. "And we should do everything we can to make sure that this disgraceful conduct never happens again."

Original post at Sun Herald.

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FEMA Failures Meet Democratic Oversight

by Ana Maria

"We have lost a great deal through our dealings with FEMA," said Paul Stewart, a former Army officer living in a trailer with his wife in Mississippi, "not the least of which is our faith in government."

When a retired military officer has lost faith in Bush’s government, that is a bell weather indicator of what many of us predicted since that horrendous day back in December 2000.

You remember that day in December in which the United States Supreme Court legally stopped the vote counting in a U.S. election. The self-proclaimed greatest democracy on the planet no longer believed that counting the votes counted in determining an election outcome. The case was Bush v. Gore, and a New York Times editorial last August summarized it succinctly.

The Supreme Court’s highly partisan resolution of the 2000 election was a severe blow to American democracy . . ..

And what we’ve learned since that day is just how true it is when we say that elections have consequences. Here we are with another set of scandals that negatively impact American lives directly in a real and palpable manner. One scandal centers on millions of dollars of ice for hurricane survivors melting in the sun. The other on FEMA deliberately weighing the cost of lawsuits against testing for the adverse health effects of its formaldehyde-filled trailers.

Burning Mad
Memphis, Tenn., news organizations reported “[h]undreds of bags of ice once intended for hurricane victims have been melting outside a Memphis warehouse for days and could pose a health risk if consumed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency bought the ice in November 2005 to use during long power outages, like those brought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.” This is outrageous!

This past weekend, I watched another of Greg Palast’s riveting investigations, Big Easy to Big Empty. I highly recommend it. Palast told the story of a grandfather who gave his grandchildren his last bottle of drinking water. The grandfather died of dehydration.

Days after watching Big Easy to Big Empty, I learn what FEMA did with the ice that could have saved lives such as the grandfather who died of dehydration.



FEMA ice melting in Tennessee 2 years after hurricane

According to the FEMA Web site, the agency had 430 truckloads of ice in 2005. It increased the amount by 400 percent -- 2,150 truckloads -- for the following year. That's enough to provide ice to more than 1 million people for up to 10 days.

One million people?! For 10 days!!! That would have more than helped the entire Katrina-ravaged region to stay hydrated. Apparently, FEMA didn’t bother to have this kind of foresight before Katrina and Rita. That would require planning . . . and caring. Two traits that elude the Bush-Cheney Administration.

On July 4th, the daily Memphis paper, The Commercial Appeal reported "[h]undreds of bags of ice once designated for hurricane victims have sat melting outside an AmeriCold Logistics warehouse . . . Congressman Steve Cohen said citizens have been carting off some of the ice, and he's worried it may pose a health risk." On July 3rd, Cohen actually saw people taking the abandoned ice. Then the company itself moved the ice to garbage cans. What a waste!

"It is appalling to learn of the waste of $67 million in taxpayer money for the purchase, transportation and storage of ice," [Congressman Steve] Cohen
wrote in a letter to [FEMA Director David] Paulison Wednesday. "That an additional $3.4 million is being paid to melt the ice is unconscionable. To consider such waste a part of doing business is a slap in the face of hardworking Americans whose taxes pay our salaries."

FEMA takes heat for ice boondoggle
Cohen vilifies waste of the public's $70 million
July 19, 2007

Cohen on the phone with FEMA about the ice melting in the Memphis sun.
Rep. Steve Cohen
Submitted by WDEF on July 4, 2007 - 5:50pm

Newly elected to Congress last November to represent the greater Memphis area of Tennessee, Cohen (D-TN) has a lifelong history of fiscal responsibility and fighting to protect the public trust. As his website accurately states, he "never falter[s] in his fight for those who do not have the power bestowed by wealth and advantage, realizing that the American dream cannot flourish without constant rededication to its principle." We need more like him in Congress, the U.S. Senate, and the White House.

FEMA’s Headaches
Today, I went inside of a FEMA formaldehyde-filled trailer for the first time. I am coordinating the volunteers who are coming down next month to work on the home of this elderly retired public school teacher whom I love so much that I refer to her as “aunt.” For well over a year now, she and her family—including her school age great grandchild who lives with her—have been breathing in the formaldehyde.

As I sat next to her, my previous piece titled Formaldehyde-Filled FEMA Trailers went through my mind a time or two. I do hope that we can get things situated to move her back into her home by Labor Day. The air in those tiny Barbie doll sized trailers is hazardous to breathe.

When I came home, my FEMA education continued as I read the Washington Post.

. . . since early 2006 [FEMA] has suppressed warnings from its own field workers
about health problems experienced by hurricane victims living in government-provided trailers with levels of a toxic chemical 75 times the recommended maximum for U.S. workers, congressional lawmakers said . . . .

Excuse me?! They have known since a few months after Katrina that these sardine can sized trailers were toxic to the degree of being 75 times the healthy level?! Moreover, they knew of the toxicity in early 2006.

Today’s Washington Post is reporting

On June 16, 2006, three months after reports of the hazards surfaced and a month after a trailer resident sued the agency, a FEMA logistics expert wrote that the agency's Office of General Counsel "has advised that we do not do testing, which would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue." A FEMA lawyer, Patrick Preston, wrote on June 15: "Do not initiate any testing until we give the OK. . . . Once you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."

What is this? Be responsible, test the FEMA air, protect the American families living in them . . . or be absolutely vile, contemptible, evil. Apparently, Bush’s FEMA has opted for the latter and adopted the Pinto Profit Protection Plan as the lens through which to cost out its options.

Remember the 1970’s case in which Ford decided that it would be financially cheaper for the company to forgo spending the $10 per car to fix the Pinto’s exploding gas tank. The corporation deliberately decided to allow its car to injure families then settle the cases with those individuals that actually pursued a legal case against the Ford Corporation.

My, oh my, oh my. Another of the Bush Administration’s vain attempt to pretend that the emperor has no clothes.

Thankfully, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is politically smart, savvy, and sophisticated. He calls a spade a shovel. When necessary, he picks it up and hits up side the head whomever seems to be needing a verbal hit up side his or her head. At yesterday’s hearing, it was FEMA director, David Paulison. Waxman referred to FEMA’s perspective as “sickening.” At the hearing, Waxman said,

"The nearly 5,000 pages of documents we've reviewed expose an official policy of pre- meditated ignorance." He also criticized the testing standards that FEMA and the Environ- mental Protection Agency used before they even- tually came to the incorrect conclusion, as Paulison stated in May 2007, that "the formaldehyde does not present a health hazard." Trailers were left with windows ajar, air conditioning on and all vents open for days before interior air levels were tested for the gas — conditions that did not nearly approxi- mate actual living conditions. It was only almost a year and a half after the first complaint — and with the looming prospect of a con- gressional hearing — that FEMA decided to act. Just yesterday, the agency announced that it was teaming up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct testing of the air quality in its trailers. [Emphasis added.]

Premeditated ignorance?! How loathsome. Yet, what did Bush’s FEMA director have to say about all of this?

"The health and safety of residents is my primary concern,"

David Paulison FEMA Director

Primary concern, my you-know-what! These folks feign compassion but their handling of Katrina’s before and aftermath demonstrates in clear and convincing ways that they care of no one but themselves and nothing but the Almighty Dollar.

Congressman Jim Cooper, a Democrat representing the Nashville area of Tennessee, spoke poignantly about Bush’s FEMA. "I haven't seen this level of government incompetence outside of the nation of China. . . . And they executed an official in China for not having done their job. No one is asking for that here, but how about a simple application of the golden rule?"

I’m a firm believer in the “what’s-good-for-the-goose” philosophy, myself, if you know what I mean. For the longest time, Paulison spouted the line that Bush’s FEMA trailers pose no real health threat then he and every FEMA employee that is marching in lock step with the White House talking points should demonstrate the strength of their convictions in the Bush Administration’s official advice. They should live in FEMA trailers for a few years.

Should they experience “headaches, burning eyes and throats, nausea and difficulty breathing” or if their noses start to bleed, they can just say a little prayer as they air out their trailers. When that doesn’t work, maybe they’ll turn in their faith-based, factually-free health recommendation for a dose of harsh reality. I wouldn’t count on it, though.The Bushies are more likely to hold their breath than to admit they deliberately deceived the American people with their willful neglect, stupidity, and blind faith in a White House that continues to betray the New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast . . . along with everyone else from the East Coast to the West Coast. As they hold their breath, we can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that at our fingertips we possess the tools to help bring about a better outcome for those families living in formaldehyde-filled FEMA trailers.

Today’s Political Hell Raising Activities center on thanking Congressman Henry Waxman and Congressman Steve Cohen for their leadership. Here are the activities for Waxman, and here for the activities for Cohen. Think about it. When someone unexpectedly praises us for something at work or home, we beam from ear to ear. Our eyes get wide and begin to dance. We stand a little taller. We feel even better about doing whatever it is we did. We feel appreciated and respected.

You know what happens then? We are more likely to do it again. So let’s burn up the computer and phone lines with simple words of thanks and praise. As we do, we’re putting a down payment on a future government that we ourselves deliberately create so that the former Army officers around us can begin again to have faith in our government. And the key phrase is “our government.”

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Ice stored in Memphis for hurricane Katrina victims is thrown away

Memphis, TN- The images are hard to forget. Thousands of people stranded in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Hot, hungry, thirsty and looking for a way out. But, there was help ready to go here in Memphis. Who can forget the hundreds of tractor trailers carrying supplies like water and ice sitting idle at the Defense Depot. That ice never made it where it was needed most.

* * *

After not being able to get answers from the company or FEMA, we called Congressman Steve Cohen who met us at the warehouse to see for himself. Cohe said "first impression it looks like a mistake and poor management by fema." The Congressman pulled out his blackberry cellphone and called the person in charge of governement relations for Americold, but their answers were pretty cold. He asked them, "this is government ice? It says FEMA National Finance Center. Who's telling you you can't comment. Miss. Matthews. Miss matthews can't comment." But this icy problem in Memphis could be heating up in the months ahead for FEMA, as congress puts the agency on the hot seat again during subcommittee meetings planned for August in New Orleans. Senartor Cohen said "we've been paying for storage paying for ice and we dump it. People in Memphis has needs, the Federal Government has need and this is irresponsible." Two years ago, some of this ice travelled through many states while FEMA tried to route it to New Orleans where it was needed. It ended up here in Memphis. the problem slowly melting away. [Emphasis added.]

Read the entire News Channel 3 story here.

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