Commercial insurance rates will crush small businesses

Letter to the Editor


Your article of July 18 hit the nail squarely on the head.

For my small enterprise, a 300 percent increase in rates just passed across my desk. And it gets better. Due to the age of my office structure, I was forced into the wind pool, despite my loyal payments and minimal Katrina damage. No more fence insurance available either, unless I resort to the pool at much higher rates. The sad part is that I can't afford enough coverage for total replacement.

This stings. It will hurt my business, my employees, and - when compounded by the fact that every other small business is facing the same hurdle - it will hurt South Mississippi.

In the words of Congressman Gene Taylor: "People who played by the rules and expected insurance companies to play by the same rules got screwed."

JIMMY MILLER
Gulfport

Published in Sun Herald on July 26, 2007.

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U.S. attorney takes no action against Scruggs

District judge determined to prosecute for contempt
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted on Thu, Jul. 26, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --The U.S. attorney in Birmingham on Wednesday declined a federal judge's request to prosecute prominent Mississippi attorney Richard F. "Dickie" Scruggs and his law firm for criminal contempt in a Hurricane Katrina insurance dispute.

U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said in the letter to U.S. District Judge William M. Acker Jr. "following a serious and thorough review of the facts surrounding this indirect criminal contempt, I respectfully decline to prosecute Mr. Scruggs or his firm."

In his June 15 request, Acker said he would appoint another attorney to handle the prosecution if Martin declined the court's request.

Acker's office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for Martin's office, Jill Ellis, said the U.S. attorney had no further comment beyond the letter.

Scruggs, a highly successful plaintiffs' lawyer, is suing State Farm on behalf of hundreds of Mississippi residents.

Scruggs could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon, but Zach Scruggs, his son and law partner in Oxford, said he received a copy of Martin's letter.

"We believe that the U.S. attorney's letter says all that needs to be said about this matter, and it would be inappropriate for us to say anything else at this time," Zach Scruggs told The Associated Press.

Acker ruled in June that Scruggs "willfully violated" a Dec. 8 preliminary injunction that required him to deliver "all documents" about State Farm Property and Casualty Insurance Co. secretly copied after Katrina by whistle-blowers Cori and Kerri Rigsby.

Acker's ruling came in a suit by E.A. Renfroe and Co. Inc., a claims-adjusting firm that fired the Rigsbys after finding out they had taken internal documents.

Renfroe and Co. worked for State Farm, and the sisters were heavily involved in processing claims for the insurance giant.

Instead of complying with the December injunction, Acker said in the June ruling, Scruggs promptly sent the documents to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's office "for the calculated purpose of ensuring noncompliance with or avoidance" of the injunction.

He said Scruggs' motive seemed clear from the undisputed facts.

"Even after Hood 'voluntarily' sent the documents to counsel for Renfroe at Scruggs's request, Scruggs wrote to Hood requesting another copy of the same documents for himself and ostensibly for the Scruggs Katrina Group," the judge wrote.

At the time, Scruggs called the judge's actions "bizarre" and said his firm had completely complied with the injunction.

The Rigsbys, from Ocean Springs, have admitted copying thousands of pages of records to back up their allegations State Farm wrongly denied claims after Katrina.

The sisters gave the documents to law enforcement agents and Scruggs, who signed them each to a $150,000-a-year consulting contract. The sisters say they made about 15,000 copies - three sets of 5,000 separate records.


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U.S. attorney declines to prosecute Scruggs

The Associated Press
July 25, 2007

BIRMINGHAM — The U.S. attorney in Birmingham declined today a federal judge’s request to prosecute prominent Mississippi attorney Richard F. Scruggs and his law firm for criminal contempt in a Hurricane Katrina insurance dispute.

U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said in the letter to U.S. District Judge William M. Acker Jr. that “following a serious and thorough review of the facts surrounding this indirect criminal contempt,” she had decided not to prosecute Scruggs or his law firm.

In his June 15 request Acker said he would appoint another attorney to handle the prosecution if Martin declined the court’s request.

Acker’s office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment this afternoon.

A spokeswoman for Martin’s office, Jill Ellis, said the U.S. attorney had no further comment beyond the letter.

Acker ruled in June that Scruggs “willfully violated” a Dec. 8 preliminary injunction that required him to deliver “all documents” about State Farm Insurance Co. that whistleblowers Cori and Kerri Rigsby secretly copied after Katrina.

Acker’s ruling came in a suit by E.A. Renfroe and Co. Inc., a claims adjusting firm that fired the Rigsbys after finding out they had taken internal documents.

Renfroe and Co. worked for State Farm, and the sisters were heavily involved in processing claims for the insurance giant.

Original article published here.

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George Dale is a Coward

by Ana Maria

What else do you call a man who refuses to show his face in a part of Mississippi that knows best his handiwork as a failed insurance commissioner in the aftermath of Katrina? I call him a coward, a chicken. That’s right. Chicken George.

How do I know that Chicken George Dale refuses to show his face around here? That Big Chicken bought over $275,000 worth of campaign radio and television ads for the last two weeks of this election season which ends on August 7th.

As of last week, Dale’s advertising buys to reach Mississippi voters included Jackson ($117,000), Columbus/Tupelo ($63,000), Laurel/Hattiesburg ($43,000), Greenwood/Greenville ($19,000), and Meridian ($31,000), Miss., as well as Memphis, Tenn., ($5,000). He didn’t schedule one radio or television ad to run here on the coast of Mississippi. Not one dime for an advertisement along the Gulf Coast. Not a single, ity bitty penny. Not ONE.

If Chicken George is so damned proud of his performance during the aftermath of the worst natural disaster in our history, wouldn’t you think that he’d be clucking about it all over the place? Clucking at meetings. Clucking on the radio. Clucking on television.

But nooooooooo. Chicken George is deliberately keeping his beak shut and off the airwaves all across the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It being an off-season election, he may be hoping that his detractors here on the Gulf Coast will be too busy trying to figure out how to put their lives back together to notice that casting a ballot for his Democratic opponent could send Dale packing.

I heard a good joke that Dale worried everyone along the coast hated him. Someone kindly informed him, “Not at all, George. Only those with insurance.”

Here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is where Chicken George Dale helped his buddies in the insurance industry have their way with plenty of families and businesses.

Rather than protecting Mississippi’s consumers—the families and businesses that have to have insurance for their financial security, Chicken George served them up as if chicken on a grill in the middle of summer.

Well, Chicken George, life under your rules and policies has been anything but a picnic.

Yes, you sure do know how to give a good speech . . . long out of ear range for those families and businesses who. you’ve helped be denied the money their insurance companies owed them. You forced the hands of your constituents. They turned to the courts to protect themselves when they should have been able to count on you to protect them. After Katrina, you turned your back on your constituents, and now you have nothing to say for it. You cannot defend yourself, so you remain silent. Your silence is deafening, George Dale. You are a coward. A chicken.

The Chicken Opens His Beak to Speak
When Chicken George opened his beak to speak before the Lion’s Club in Clarksdale, Miss., he said Katrina was “the worst natural disaster in U.S. history . . . and put an undue burden on insurance companies.” Imagine that? What a thing for him to say as the man elected to protect commercial and residential consumers from insurance companies that want to collect premiums but not pay on legitimate claims.

Interestingly, Dale has already been thinking of a career change, into that of grand master of city planning. The Clarksdale Press Register reported Chicken George saying

The enormous impact from Hurricane Katrina should leave Mississippians wondering if they should live "in harm's way. . . "

Harm’s way? Living near the water is being in harm’s way.

Chicken George apparently can’t read or research. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, 55% of us in the country live within 50 miles of the nation’s coastline. It’s on the agency’s website, Chicken George. Just click on this hyperlink, and it will take you there.

So, George, if you are suggesting that over half of the U.S. population move inland, to where do you intend for us to move? 150 miles inland? 200 miles? How would you recommend accomplishing that, Chicken George? If it isn’t hurricane country, it’s tornado country or blizzard country or earthquake country. Where is this elusive place you wish for everyone to live?

Of course, I have a better idea, Chicken George.

How’s about we all stay put and have the insurance companies pay what they owe on wind policies and pay back with interest and penalties—and maybe some good old fashioned jail time—the money these companies deliberately bilked from the National Flood Insurance Program.

Chicken George, you should have focused on doing the job to which you were elected rather than pretending to be the grand master of city planning. It really is not a good fit for ya, George. Perhaps you might consider culinary school. I bet you’d make a fine chicken stew.


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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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Rising insurance prices leaving many in a bind

By Congressman Jo Bonner (R-AL)

There are no easy answers to the ever increasing and frustrating insurance prices the Gulf Coast has experienced over the past few years.

With insurance companies limiting their exposure in certain areas, homeowners are being left in a bind when protecting their homes and families from natural disasters.

The insurance crisis is not only in Alabama, it can also be found in our neighboring states of Florida and Mississippi as well as Louisiana.

Living fulltime in Alabama's First District, I understand - and share - your concerns and frustrations firsthand. Insurance traditionally has been regulated at the state level and not by the federal government.

In an effort to help address this issue, I recently cosponsored the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007, H.R. 920, introduced by Congressman Gene Taylor, D - Mississippi.

Too often - in the aftermath of a hurricane - the debate between homeowners and adjusters is whether the damage was caused by wind or by water.

H.R. 920, if enacted, would create within the National Flood Insurance Program the option of purchasing coverage for both wind and flood in one policy.


In the end - damage is damage - and property owners should have the option of purchasing comprehensive coverage from one source. I am hopeful Congress will make this coverage option available to homeowners in the future.

In addition, I have been in frequent contact with Governor Bob Riley, Alabama Insurance Commissioner Walter Bell, as well as former Foley Mayor Tim Russell, who has been working hard to form a captive pool policy for homeowners and businesses in our area. I have also been in contact with numerous other state and local leaders - all with the hopes of urging immediate action on this critical issue.

Currently, H.R. 920 is awaiting markup in the House Financial Services Committee before it can be brought to the House floor.

Rest assured, if progress is made either at the state level or here in Washington, we'll be sure to make you aware of any new options that might be available.

Read the original in The Atmore Advance.

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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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Insurance companies helped put the federal flood program in the red

In the article "Barbour sides with Taylor's insurance bill," you should have noted that Congressman Taylor has disputed the insurance industry's study about costs. The $200 billion cost estimate is based on bogus assumptions.

I worked in D.C. for 10 years for an advocacy group. I know that lobbying associations often fund studies to fight particular legislation, and they usually find a way to inflate costs to scare people away from a bill. Even though Taylor has refuted the study, the very fact that you include the association's cost doubts in the article without proper refutation is a victory for the insurance association. Their dishonesty has been rewarded.

While "artificially low rates for flood insurance" may have "helped mire the program in debt," you should have also noted that the insurers' improper shifting of costs to the flood program when wind was involved is likely the primary reason the flood program is in debt.

This dishonest activity, which has been reported on several occasions, has certainly shifted costs to taxpayers.

LARRY MARTIN
Bay St. Louis

See letter here.


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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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