Santa Barbara's ABC Affiliate Airs Compelling 2-Part Original Katrina Series

by Ana Maria

Last night, the Santa Barbara ABC affiliate interviewed Kevin Davis, a budding would-be reporter who had just returned from his self-financed trip to the Katrina-ravaged region. In his interview on InFocus, Kevin aired part 1 of his two-part video titled Katrina Revisited.

Kevin’s mini series demonstrates compellingly the devastating financial crisis that can befall the 55% of Americans who live within 50 miles of our nation’s beautiful coastlines. His series demonstrates further that Taylor’s multiple peril insurance proposal is the answer to protect the financial security of everyday Americans who work hard, play by the rules, and expect an insurance policy to provide the financial security we pay for it to provide.

While doing his research long before coming to the area, Kevin came across my blog A.M. in the Morning! which I had posted on my Daily Kos diary. Regular readers know I focus exclusively on real life inside Katrina Land, with a specific focus on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Kevin decided to contact me to share his plans to come to New Orleans. I recommended that he consider including three parts of the Katrina story that would surely be overlooked by most of the mainstream programs.

1. The ongoing devastating economic harshness of living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

2. How the insurance companies have played a major role in preventing its policyholders like Joe De Benvenutti and Congressman Gene Taylor and plenty of other throughout the Katrina area from rebuilding their homes, businesses, lives, and communities.

3. The absolute necessity of passing the multiple peril insurance policy that Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) sponsored, legislation that is now a part of the federal flood insurance reauthorization bill on which Congress will soon vote. Brilliantly, Kevin incorporated everything into a two-part short video, the first part of which aired last night on Santa Barbara’s popular Sunday evening program InFocus during his interview on the program.

Here is part 1 that Kevin showed on InFocus.



I’m hoping that the popularity of Kevin’s interview and the compelling story he revealed in part 1 of this series will assist in guaranteeing that he will land a follow-up interview where the second part can also be aired. In Part 2, Kevin addresses the multiple peril insurance act directly and ends the piece with his interview with Congressman Taylor, the original sponsor of this landmark legislation. The congressman's interview provides undeniably persuasive and convincing reasons that the nation must offer its citizens one policy for both flood and wind damage, a policy option which private industry does not offer.

My favorites in the series are Congressman Taylor, Joe De Benvenutti, and Lisa Palumbo. In the spirit of full disclosure, however, Kevin also included two clips of yours truly as well.

Taylor told Kevin,

“People say ‘Well, gee. How is it the flood program loses $19 billion the same year that the insurance industry collectively cleared about $60 billion?’ Well, it’s no coincidence. The tax payers paid bills that the insurance companies should have paid.”

Taylor explained how families and businesses benefit from his proposed multiple peril legislation.

“and you can buy an option on your flood insurance for all perils. So that whether the wind did it, the water did it, if you come home to a slab, if you come home and your home was substantially destroyed, it doesn’t matter.

If you built it the way you were supposed to, if you paid your premiums, and the storm gets it, you’re gonna get paid. You don’t have to hire a lawyer. You don’t have to hire an engineer . . . and wait years to get the check that you should have gotten within days.”

That is how is should be.



To help propel the airing of this second part—seen here courtesy of Kevin Davis and A.M. in the Morning!;), let’s channel our political hell raising energy into contacting the station to request that they air Part 2. Santa Barbara is an important media market.

Contact the station know that their budding reporter has provided the world with a gift and that we’d like them to consider bringing him back on to show part 2. As always, A.M. in the Morning! provides a phone script with the phone number to achieve this important goal to help get this series aired in an important media market.

Hopefully, this bright, young, energetic, soulful man’s two-part series will also launch his new on-camera reporting career. Our nation needs more reporters who deliberately seek out the stories that need talents like Kevin’s that can tell the story in a movingly compelling manner.


Kevin Davis works as a production assistant for KEYT-TV, an ABC affiliate in Santa Barbara, CA, and is currently looking for his first reporting job. Last week, A.M. in the Morning! published an interview with CNN’s Kathleen Koch that Kevin Davis shot here in Bay St. Louis. Kevin can be reached at 925-788-1803 and kdavis2600@gmail.com.


© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Children Slipping Further Behind after Katrina

A recent report published by the Southern Education Foundation, Inc. entitled “Education After Katrina: Time for a New Federal Response,” documents the complete lack of federal support for education access and opportunity in the Gulf Coast since Katrina. As Lynn Huntley, President of SEF, notes in her cover letter, “In the world’s richest nation…it is hard to accept the neglect and poverty in the Gulf Coast region and the limited engagement of the federal government in education reconstruction.”

She goes on to report: “Two years after the storms, thousands of Gulf Coast children are still without needed early childhood care and education. Displaced students are still struggling without needed counseling and other services as they fall further and further behind. Schools remain inadequately repaired or staffed and are still unable to provide students with the resources, rigor and hope needed for excellence in educational achievement and attainment. Thousands of students of all ages have simply dropped out of view or out of school, and impoverished Gulf Coast institutions of higher education are still trying to fulfill their mission against the odds. The nation can and must do better.”

(A wealth of data is available from a Boston Consulting Group report entitled "The State of Public Education in New Orleans," June 2007.)

Particularly upsetting to me was news of the tens of thousands of students who missed some or all of the past two years of school. From what I’ve seen of the FEMA housing “parks,” the kids who are staying at home from school (from 15% to nearly 25% of the kids, depending on age group) are cooped up and far, far away from the resources they need to connect to society.

Not investing effectively to restore the homes, roads, hospitals, schools, offices, and historic treasures of the area is a conundrum and a waste. Not investing in the affected kids is a travesty. We’d love to hear from experts on the ground what can be done.

Carla E. Dearing

Originally posted here on September 17, 2007.

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IRS has bad news on Road Home

Posted by David Hammer, staff writer September 16, 2007 8:48PM

Now that the Road Home has paid out more than 50,000 grants, many of those recovering homeowners are encountering a new cruel reality: They may have to send up to 35 percent of the federal grant right back to Washington in the form of income taxes.

If they claimed a casualty loss for their damaged property as a deduction on their 2005 tax return, they must add the grant to their taxable income in the year it's received.

Or, worse, they may find that their decision to claim a casualty loss -- made long ago, in some cases before the federal government sent billions to Louisiana for the Road Home program -- will suddenly thrust them into a higher tax bracket, forcing them to pay higher taxes on all of their income for this year.

The Internal Revenue Service would normally treat Road Home grants as nontaxable gifts, but if the grant applicant claimed a casualty loss from the 2005 hurricanes and later gets the Road Home compensation, the IRS considers the grant a duplication of the 2005 tax break, and it becomes taxable income in the year it's received.



Wayne Taylor of Slidell said he did a double-take when he read in the newspaper that his Road Home grant would be counted as taxable income in 2007 if he claimed the loss in 2005. He had claimed a loss totaling as much as his grant. He called his brother, an accounting clerk in Tulsa, Okla., who immediately started warning the dozens of elderly displaced Road Home applicants he knows in his community. None of them was ready for the shock.

"I'm lucky," said Taylor, a retired technician who supplements his pensions with a $40,000-a-year job. "I have people to advise me, and I'm still working, so I can absorb the hit. But a lot of people don't even know they have a liability."

Delivering bad news

New Orleans accountant Jerry Schreiber has spent much of the past year delivering the bad news about the taxability of Road Home grants to angry clients and colleagues.

For example, he said if Social Security recipients claim sizable casualty losses and then get large Road Home grants, they could go from not having to file a federal tax return to having to pay taxes on all their income: their pension and their grant. "When you lose your world and your comfort zone, it's very difficult," Schreiber said. "This is the emotional toll of all of this. And it's why it's so, so difficult to get people to pay attention to the tax issue. It comes in now, along with everything else: the insurance companies, the LRA, whether the levees are rebuilt. It's too much for a lot of people."

As few taxpayers understand the intricacies of the tax code, even fewer thought to consider the potential Road Home taxation issue back when they decided whether to claim a casualty loss on their 2005 return -- or, through a special provision, their 2004 return. The IRS decided only late last year that the grants would be taxable. That left local accountants giving clients nebulous advice, even as they met with them this year to prepare 2006 or 2005 returns, which could be filed all the way up to April 24.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., each submitted legislation to exempt the grants from taxes, but the chances of passage aren't good.

"There are definitely very panicked people calling here about it, so she'll do everything in her power to get it done. But it's a challenging thing to get done," said Landrieu spokeswoman Stephanie Allen.

Not much optimism

As he prepared to push other priorities to Congress, Andy Kopplin, the executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the state agency that created the Road Home, was even less optimistic about the tax-break bill's chances in Washington.

"We're going to be pragmatic and work with our delegation to pass the bills we can pass," Kopplin said. "There hasn't been as positive a reception to that piece of legislation,"

Landrieu's staff said it has met with congressional budget staff to find out how much it would cost in lost tax revenue. IRS spokeswoman Deirdre Harris said it's hard to get a good count of how many Louisiana taxpayers claimed casualty losses from the hurricanes because they can still do so up until April 24, 2010, and Schreiber expects many of them to wait until the last possible moment to decide.

Geralyn Suhor, an accountant from St. Bernard Parish who prepares tax returns for homeowners in that hurricane-ravaged community, said ever-changing rules in the Road Home program and the IRS uncertainties made complex accounting work even more difficult.

She didn't know all the tax implications for Road Home grants while she was working with clients on 2005 and 2006 returns, but she made sure to warn them anyway.

"Now, I get calls from people who've just gotten their Road Home money, and they want to know what the tax implications are," Suhor said. "If I claimed a loss for them in 2005, I say you ought to think about putting some of the money away for taxes before using it for rebuilding. ... They've been waiting on this money to rebuild, and now this."

Nervous accountants

Suhor advised clients who claimed casualty losses on their 2005 returns to make estimated future tax payments. She also advised some to elect to take the Road Home payments in installments to spread out the income over two tax years, if possible.

The tax issue was so uncertain for much of last year that the IRS turned to a group of New Orleans-area accountants to come up with special breaks for Katrina victims.

Suhor said the problem is exacerbated because, in many cases, hurricane victims are making significantly more money in 2007 than they did in 2005, when Katrina's wrath cut off employment income for some taxpayers for the final third of the year. That's another reason a sudden uptick in income this year could push so many into higher tax brackets.

"It's very difficult for us to know what is impacting people, so working with local practitioners helps us give better guidance," said Harris, who recommended that taxpayers check www.irs.gov and search under "Help for Hurricane Victims."

Schreiber was the federal government's key local contact. He said tax professionals -- the ones who must decipher how Katrina's damage is handled in the infamously esoteric tax code -- are more nervous than ever. They want to produce solid tax returns for clients who lost everything, but they also depend on those traumatized clients to provide detailed records of their losses, he says.

He said the IRS still has yet to give guidance on the various tax implications of the three Road Home options of rebuilding, selling to the state and buying a new home in Louisiana, or selling to the state without buying again in Louisiana.

Meanwhile, the state has decided not to distribute Form 1099 to Road Home recipients, leaving the door open to the possibility that the IRS may never find out about the grant income. Schreiber said he and other CPAs are worried about taxpayers using that as an invitation to avoid reporting the Road Home money, which he said would be a big mistake.

"Of course, you'll have to be careful to explain to the client the tax consequence, but people will still want to roll the dice," he said. "Cheating on taxes is a game, but I hope they know if they get caught, the penalties and interest will eat them alive."

David Hammer can be reached at dhammer@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3322.

Originally published here on September 18, 007.

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Legal tactics stall insurance reform

Companies' court fights upset lawmaker who wanted home rates cut

11:01 PM CDT on Sunday, September 16, 2007
By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News
tstutz@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – Four years after the Legislature took aim at runaway premiums for home insurance, two of Texas' biggest insurers are battling state efforts to lower their rates, and sponsors of the 2003 insurance reform law say homeowners are still paying too much.

State Farm and Allstate, the two largest property insurers in the state, have used their sizable legal staffs to fight the Texas Department of Insurance in various courts, allowing them to keep charging what state regulators say are inflated rates for their policies.

The companies argue that the state is overstepping its authority and trying to deny them the ability to have sufficient reserves for the massive weather-related losses that regularly plague Texas.

Watching from the sidelines – for now – is House Insurance Committee Chairman John Smithee, who has been discouraged by the legal tactics of insurers and the failure of insurance prices to come down significantly for many homeowners. He estimated that the cost of many policies is still at least 7 percent to 12 percent too high.

"Lawyers for insurance companies have been very creative in finding ways to not comply with the law," said Mr. Smithee, an Amarillo lawyer and Republican who sponsored the 2003 reform law. "You can draft a statute very carefully, but they [insurers] have the best lawyers in the business trying to work around the law."

Mr. Smithee said legislators need to find a way to strengthen the law in their next session, or "This will come up again and again in the future, particularly if Allstate or State Farm is successful in their litigation."

He also acknowledged that the regulatory approach set up under the 2003 law – the so-called file and use system – has not work as well as lawmakers hoped.

Under the system, insurers can start using the higher rates for auto and home coverage once they have notified the insurance department. The insurance commissioner has authority to review the new rates and can reject them if they are excessive – subjecting the company to refunds and penalty interest.

That is exactly what Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin did last month when he cancelled Allstate's proposed 5.9 percent statewide rate hike. But Allstate went to court, getting a temporary restraining order against the insurance department that allowed Allstate to keep charging its higher rates.

"The rates we implemented were accurate and actuarially justified," insisted Allstate spokesman Bill Mellander. "We have been acting well within the bounds and spirit of the law."

Further, he added, "You don't have to be a meteorologist to see we are living in an increasingly prolific environment of catastrophes. In the last month, Texas has seen landfall of a hurricane, a tropical storm and the near miss of another hurricane."

The two sides will return to state court in Travis County in early October.

4-year fight
State Farm has been locked in a legal fight with the insurance department for four years after the state's largest insurer ignored an order from the commissioner to cut its "excessive" rates by 12 percent. No end to the standoff is in sight.

Mr. Smithee said the Legislature needs to give more power to the commissioner to counteract the extensive legal resources of big insurance companies. He hopes that will happen when insurance regulation comes under scrutiny next year as lawmakers draft "sunset" legislation to revamp and renew the insurance department.

"The industry will have to deal with a lot of issues they have not been dealing with in recent years," he said. "They will be fair game when we consider the sunset bill."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a strong backer of the 2003 reform law, said he still believes it has been good for consumers and "created a healthy, competitive marketplace that is attracting new insurers to Texas."

"Companies that try to charge excessive rates are finding it won't be tolerated, and I will continue to watch the industry closely and take whatever action is necessary to keep rates low and insurance affordable," he said.

Mr. Smithee and industry observers say increased worries that another major hurricane, similar to Katrina or Rita, will hit the Texas coast is a factor in keeping insurance rates too high.

Insurers have been reducing their business along the Texas coast to lower their exposure to a hurricane, forcing homeowners there to buy coverage from the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. The TWIA is the "insurer of last resort" set up by the state to provide windstorm and hail coverage for homeowners in the 14 coastal counties who can't get protection from private companies.

While the TWIA collects premiums on its policies, it currently is able to cover only $1.8 billion in potential property losses from a hurricane – a fraction of the $58 billion worth of property that TWIA insures up and down the coast. Should its losses exceed $1.8 billion, insurance companies will be required to cover additional damages based on their market share in Texas – though they can eventually recover those payments through premium tax credits.

That potential liability has kept some insurance companies from expanding their business in the state and kept other companies from entering the Texas market, according to Mr. Smithee. That has resulted in less competition among insurers – and less desire to lower prices to get new customers.

"We have not had the influx of new policies we thought we would have," Mr. Smithee said. "As a result, home insurance rates have remained artificially high. Companies don't want to expand in Texas because of the risk they would have to take on the coast."

Consumer groups have grown impatient with the protracted litigation between big insurers and state regulators.

"This whole, sad state of affairs is exhibit A in the case for stronger, stricter oversight of insurance companies," said Alex Winslow of Texas Watch, a consumer group active in insurance issues.

"Big insurers are exploiting a loophole in the law as they continue to try to bully the insurance department," he said. "We need a new regulatory system that gives the commissioner authority to approve insurance rates before they go into effect. It is time to have prior [state] approval before insurance rates can be imposed on policyholders."

Regulation questioned
Industry representatives argued the state needs less, not more, regulation of rates.

"There is not enough competition in the insurance market because companies are reluctant to enter a state that can require prior approval of rates," said Jerry Johns, president of Southwestern Insurance Information Service, referring to two current orders by Mr. Geeslin that bar Allstate and State Farm from raising rates further without prior approval.

Mr. Johns also rejected the claim that insurers are using loopholes to get around state regulation, saying they are entitled under the law to contest orders they don't agree with. "It doesn't send a good message when an insurer can't get rates sufficient to pay the claims of customers," he said.

Mark Hanna of the Insurance Council of Texas said state regulators need to remember that the primary mission under state law of the Texas Department of Insurance is "to maintain the solvency of insurance companies that do business in Texas. That means that companies must have adequate reserves on hand and charge appropriate rates to cover claims."

He said homeowner rates have fallen for most customers since 2003, and the number of complaints against insurance companies also has dropped each year since then.

"Unfortunately, Texas remains prone to devastating weather conditions," he added, citing the reason for some insurers to increase their rates.


Oriinally published in the Dallas Morning News on September 16, 2007.



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A shocking slap at Americorps, heroes of Katrina

Posted on Thu, Sep. 13, 2007
Editorial

Lost in the shuffle of Congress' budgetary machinations is the scalpel that has slashed funding for Americorps NCCC, the National Civilian Community Corps, to less than half of the organization's 2007 budget.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a budget that slashes NCCC funding from $26 million to $11 million. This is unbelievable, as the thousands of Americorps volunteers who quickly came to the aid of South Mississippi following Katrina were among the very best representatives of our federal government, living proof of tax dollars that were effectively and efficiently expended in the behalf of a shattered region.

The same could not always be said of other federal agencies, some which did not perform at a level that taxpayers would have expected.

Among the many who wear the name "hero" in our book of golden deeds performed here, the Americorps volunteers will forever have a place of honor in our memory - idealistic young people, and seniors also, who came here and lived in Spartan conditions for month after month, in military tents, going out day after day to help the people of South Mississippi pull themselves out of the debris and rebuild.

So there is some amazement, and perhaps a bit of controlled anger, to know that the House would so injudiciously cut this fine organization to the bone.

The bright star on Capitol Hill is Sen. Thad Cochran, who has championed an increase in funding to $31 million for this valuable and effective organization, and has won the backing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Perhaps those who control the budgets would fare better in the opinion of their countrymen if they came and served in this zone of extreme need as these fine Americorps volunteers have done. But absent such service, their next best step toward redemption would be to restore the funding.

And do it quickly.

Original Sun Herald editorial published here.

See also
Cochran to go to bat for young volunteers.

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The Best of A.M. in the Morning! Sept 9 - 16, 2007

by Ana Maria

Blog Entries
Taking Stock of FEMA's Foolish Fumbling 9.15.07
Speaking from the Heart: CNN's Kathleen Koch 9.14.07
Allstate Cancels Policies in Brooklyn, NY, Blames Katrina 9.13.07
More "signs" of the times 9.12.07
Grateful: Home Builder's Assoc. Strong Ally in Insurance Reform 9.11.07
Multiple Peril Insurance: Fundamental Home, Land Security 9.10.07

News Items
Our Opinion: Put multiple-peril insurance on the fast track Mississippi Press Register 9.16.07
PTSD has strong presence on Coast Sun Herald 9.16.07

Well, well: 2 years after Katrina, FEMA OK's school water project 9.14.07
Barracks recovery viewed as symbol for Gulf Coast Times Picayune 9.14.07
Jewish hurricane aid tops $1.5M Sun Herald 9.14.07

Vitamin Relief Brings Needed Nutrition to School District Resurrecting After Katrina Vitamin Relief USA 9.13.07
Cochran to go to bat for young volunteers Sun Herald 9.13.07
Feud Brews Over Katrina Housing Funds Associated Press 9.13.07
Allstate Will Not Refuse to Renew New York Policies Reuters 9.13.07
Volunteers still making an impact on the Gulf Coast WGDJ-TV 79.13.07

Judge refuses to bar lawyer from State Farm cases WQAD/Associated Press 9.12.07
The Storm Before the Storm (Brooklyn, NY) New York Magazine 9.12.07
Brooklyn Homeowner's Insurance Woes Brooklyn Daily Eagle 9.12.07
Mississippi resident still recovering from Hurricane Katrina WBDJ-TV7 News 9.12.07
FEMA refuses to pay Miss. county almost $12 M for Katrina work WDAM-TV 7 News 9.12.07
Hancock receives advice on aid: USDA Brings Money, Too 9.12.07
Sun Herald 9.12.07
Anderson Pushes for Lower Insurance Rates 9.12.07

Editorial: Insurance crunch goes far beyond beachfront lifestyle Sun Herald 9.11.07
Private firms take big cut of flood insurance revenue Alabama Register 9.11.07
5th Circuit Ruling: SKG Responds Scruggs Katrina Group Website 9.11.07

WSJ: Putting a Price On Catastrophe Wall Street Journal 9.9.07
Windstorm rates: From bad to worse Miami Herald 9.9.07
Group supports multi-peril option Sun Herald 9.9.07
Like Rocky, we must never lose sight of the goal Sun Herald 9.9.07



© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Our Opinion: Put multiple-peril insurance on the fast track

OPINION

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Here we are about at the midpoint of the hurricane season and the possibility of a major storm remains something to be feared along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Even if a storm doesn't occur, coastal residents are hammered by the cost or lack of insurance to cover wind-related damage. Rep. Gene Taylor's has a bill that would add wind to the national flood insurance plan. It appears to be a simple, straightforward solution to the insurance crisis that threatens redevelopment along the Gulf Coast.

Recently, the National Association of Home Builders endorsed the legislation, which now awaits a vote in the House. The association that represents about 800 local organizations and 235,000 members, stated recovery efforts have slowed partly because property insurance claims have been denied after Hurricane Katrina. Property owners also are finding insurance rates soaring.

Besides premiums that discourage rebuilding along the Coast, some insurance companies are not writing new policies to cover wind damage.

Taylor's proposal enjoys widespread bipartisan support. With a majority of nation's population living close to a coast, it's not difficult to understand why the legislation is vitally needed. The alternative to passing the multiple-peril insurance plan is to send a signal to coastal residents to start packing up and leaving. Without affordable and adequate insurance, much of the hurricane-prone coastal areas will become home to only those who can afford insurance or those willing to risk property ownership without insurance coverage.

Flood insurance has worked for many years and established ground rules for development in flood-prone areas. The multiple-peril insurance legislation establishes similar rules for building in regard to wind forces. The proposal appears sensible and needed.

The sooner wind is added to the flood insurance program, the better to remove another worry for coastal residents.

Congress ought to put this legislation on the fast track to speed its implementation, perhaps before hurricane season ends.

Originally published here on September 16, 2007.


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PTSD has strong presence on Coast

Veterans face both combat and Katrina
By MEGHA SATYANARAYANA
SUN HERALD

BILOXI --The number of Gulf Coast veterans seeking treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder rivals that of major cities such as San Antonio, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City, according to an internal document obtained by McClatchy Newspapers through the Freedom of Information Act.

With the New Orleans and Gulfport facilities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the stress of nearly 1,400 veterans with PTSD and their 10,700 outpatient visits during 2006 fell on remaining facilities of the VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System in Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola and Panama City. The workload is intense, said Kelly Woods, assistant chief of psychology services in the Gulf Coast system. They see at least 20 people each month in a residential program and do at least 100 new and followup appointments each month in Biloxi and at other sites.

Many PTSD vets are from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and the numbers needing treatment are expected to grow as more come home.

Several will have to deal with both combat stress and losses suffered from the hurricane, he said. PTSD symptoms, from the vague, "My wife says I'm different," to things like nightmares, violent outbursts and substance abuse, take months to years to surface. The combination of war and Katrina has pushed some to exhibit symptoms earlier. "Katrina was a trigger - I need help," Woods said. "Lots of guys lost their home while in an active war zone."

The report said there were few PTSD inpatients in the Gulf Coast system. However, the four-week intensive residential program started in October 2006 may not be reflected in those numbers. In spite of 20 beds, it's considered outpatient, Woods said.

The report said there was $643,739 devoted to PTSD care in the Gulf Coast system in 2006, or about $585 per patient. Edwin Cassell, spokesman for the hospital, said that number is too low, and their budget is $1.9 million. He said they spend as much as is needed per patient.

The larger service area encompassing the Gulf Coast system did not fare well in overall PTSD performance, ranking 18th out of 21 surveyed. There are 23 service areas nationwide.

Services could be better, said Henry Cook, the national commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, which represents veterans. Even though soldiers should be seen within 30 days of enrollment at the veteran's hospital, that doesn't always happen. Getting treatment from a civilian professional with no military background creates a disconnect, he said.

Both Cook and Woods, who served in the military, worry about suicide. Last January, a 23-year old Marine from the Coast killed himself after returning from Iraq. His case worker called the day of the funeral. Woods said the hospital tries to catch those at risk, from intake evaluations, to a suicide hotline, to walk-in services.

The stigma of mental illness in the military prevents many from seeking care, Woods said. Soldiers don't want to be seen as weak, and many worry that a diagnosis of PTSD will trickle down to supervisors and ruin their careers.

"It's difficult for someone 21 years old to say, 'I'm crying all the time,'" he said.

PTSD treatment information

Sarah Herring, LGSW, Acting OEF/OIF Program 1-800-296-8872 ext. 5440

John Sherman, OEF/OIF Patient Advocate 1-800-296-8872 ext. 4933

Mental Health Outpatient Clinic, 1-800-296-8872 ext. 8089/4790

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK

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Taking Stock of FEMA's Foolish Fumbling

by Ana Maria

Why in the living heck does a small elementary school have to have a national morning television program publicize its two-year old need for running water before Bush's FEMA will FINALLY approve the request?!

This is utterly unacceptable, shameful, and maddening. Good Morning America's Robin Roberts, a native of Pass Christian, Miss., came here for the 2nd year Katrina anniversary festivities. During her visit to her hometown area, she learned that the Delisle Elementary School had NO running water. These 600 children were stuffed inside a 60 trailer campus and forced to use portable toilet for TWO years.

Delisle is a small community, and I'll guarantee its unmet needs are only the tip of the iceberg remaining inside the Katrina-ravaged region from Louisiana through Mississippi and over to our eastern neighbors in Alabama. Heck, it would NOT take a rocket scientist to document all the infrastructure needs we have. Here's a simple plan that is doable and can be completed in short order.

The Plan
A. Develop a list of the kinds of facilities and services that comprise basic infrastructure in Any Town, USA. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following.

1. hospitals
2. doctors (list types of docs from family practitioners to ob/gyns to dermitologists to dentists to chiropractors, etc.)
3. nurses (list types of nurses from pediatrics to home health to surgical, etc.)
4. mental health services (from psychologists to psychiatrists to drug and alcohol rehab, etc.)
5. schools (elementary, middle, high, colleges and universities)
   
6. municipal and county/parish (jails, city hall, police and fire stations, etc.)

Get the drift?

B. Recruit bright, eager college students to intern. These students are bright, young, eager-to-help-the-Katrina-ravaged-region and can be recruited from right here inside the region. They can live with their parents, earn college credit, and put something of substance on their resume. In turn, the American people will have a comprehensive list of the needs. No more waiting TWO years for running water for our elementary school children. How utterly ridiculous!

C. Project manager develops a brief questionnaire. It may have only a few questions on it. The point is to solicit the information and obtain documentation, as appropriate.

1. What are your remaining Katrina-related needs?
2. What have you applied for from FEMA and other government agencies that has not yet been funded and where is it in the FEMA paperwork chain? (Ask for copies of the paperwork.)

D. Have the students look for good photo opportunities to document needs. In the Delisle case, it would be a port-o-potty, maybe with kids standing in line or entering it. Visuals are good. Drives home the point.

E. At this point, we'll have a list of the needs. The project manager, perhaps with the interns, categorizes the needs by type and geographic location (city, county/parish) as well as visuals. We'll also have documentation of FEMA and other governmental agencies lack of responsiveness to our needs.

The truth, of course, is that the federal government--in particular FEMA--could have and should have already compiled a list of the needs throughout the Katrina-ravaged region. Where is that comprehensive list? What have they done in response to each of these needs?

Heck, if the federal government doesn't want to do what it is getting more than enough of our tax dollars to do, perhaps a news organization will sponsor this intern-based project to shine the light of day on what needs doing.

Put a few interns in each county and parish. Gather the information. Compile it in an easily digestible way. Put it on a website so that everyone can access it and read it. Be sure to include many visuals. Then, make a HUGE production of the end results.

With enough student interns and proper management of the project, this could take only a few months to collect, input into a database, analyze, publicize, and provide to an important congressional oversight committee. The one that comes to mind is Congressman Henry Waxman's (D-CA) Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

I'm not one to drag out these projects. I've conducted enough similar work as a management auditor for the State of Tennessee then the city and county of San Francisco to know that this work can be done efficiently and effectively with minimal resources.

This is the kind of work that someone the White House should have already ensured had been conducted. Frankly, if we recall, we would have expected as much from the Clinton Administration. But Bush's FEMA leadership seems more adept at handling horses (Michael Brown). The administration recently put in charge of Small State and Rural Advocate and Director, Community Preparedness Division a man good with sheep (Brock Bierman). Don't we feel better?

With A.M. in the Morning's proposed intern-based project--which the federal government should have already created--we'll have obtained a comprehensive list of unmet needs at this time. From there, we'll then be able to analyze where is the most appropriate place to go for assistance. (HINT: FEMA.) This is how we take stock of FEMA's foolish fumbling.

My guess is that we'll find plenty of stories similar to the Delisle elementary school where the White House Administration has done a great job of wrongfully neglecting the needs of our nation's children and their families.

Well, well, well. So be it. Let the project begin.


© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Well, well: 2 years after Katrina, FEMA OK's school water project

Posted on Fri, Sep. 14, 2007

The Associated Press

PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. --

Construction will start next week for a new well that will provide running water to classroom trailers in Pass Christian schools.

"FEMA is a large, multi-fingered monster," Ronnie Storey, director of support services for the Pass Christian School District, told WLOX-TV in Biloxi.

On the second anniversary of Katrina, "Good Morning America" host Robin Roberts - who grew up in Pass Christian - did an on-air interview with FEMA director David Paulison and asked about the well. Paulison assured her that action would be taken.

Since then, FEMA agreed to pay $309,000 for the project. Storey gives Roberts credit for speeding up the process.

"We had come a long way in the process, but she was probably the one who pushed the right button to tip it over," Storey said.

Pass Christian School Superintendent Sue Matheson and several of her students appeared on "Good Morning America" on Friday to thank Roberts for her help.

After Delisle Upper Elementary and Delisle Middle School were destroyed by Katrina, 55 trailers were installed on the elementary campus. Now, only three trailers have running water and serve as restrooms for the students and faculty. Twelve other trailers have sinks and toilets, but no water hookup.

The current well on the campus was only designed to handle one school. But with the addition of more than 700 students and teachers, the district needed another well that's bigger.

The new well will take about 90 days to build. It will provide water to 12 trailers and the future bus barn and transportation building.

Information from: WLOX-TV, http://www.wlox.com and The Sun Herald, http://www.sunherald.com.

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