Structural engineer testifies in USAA trial

By ANITA LEE
SUN HERALD, January 15, 2008

GULFPORT -- A structural engineer admitted he changed a report that detailed Hurricane Katrina damage to a homeowner’s property, but told a jury he did so for accuracy and clarity rather than to downplay wind damage so USAA Casualty Insurance Co. would owe less money.

Structural engineer James W. Jordan reviewed several changes he made to the report completed by engineer Roverta Chapa, who actually inspected the property at Henderson Point on the Bay of St. Louis in Harrison County. Chapa and Jordan did not communicate before Jordan made the changes, which was against policy established by Jordan’s employer, Rimkus Consulting Group Inc.

Policyholders David W. and Marilyn M. Aiken claim Rimkus and USAA conspired to defraud them. They want their insurance claim paid in full, plus extra damages to punish the companies. Their lawsuit will resume this morning with testimony from Chapa.

Rimkus and USAA claim the Aikens are seeking more money than they deserve because federal flood insurance paid them policy limits for tidal surge damage, while USAA offered a check to cover what the wind could have destroyed. USAA and other insurance companies exclude such flood damage from coverage, which has led to hundreds of disputes between policyholders and insurers. However, this is the first case with claims of fraudulent engineering reports to reach trial in federal court.

The Aikens maintain a tornado destroyed their vacation home before 25 feet of water inundated the property.

USAA attorney Greg Copeland told the jury during opening arguments that the Aikens simply wanted to maximize their payments for Katrina damage. Their flood coverage totalled $278,000. USAA paid $178,205 in structural and contents damage on a policy that provided more than $680,000 in coverage.

But the Aikens’ attorney, George W. Healy IV, told the jury that evidence would show the companies “intentionally and with forethought came up with a plan to deny legitimate claims.”

Rimkus attorney David Ward said testimony will show the Aikens hired their own engineer because David Aiken accompanied the Rimkus engineer on his inspection and knew the engineer thought water had caused most of the damage. Ward told the jury they would hear firsthand about communications between Rimkus and USAA, so they should not believe Healy. “You can be the judge of the facts,” he said, “not the allegations.”

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Engineer: Tornado destroyed house



By PAM FIRMIN
Published January 19, 2008

GULFPORT -- Hours before Hurricane Katrina's storm surge arrived, the Henderson Point home of David and Marilyn Aiken had been hit by a tornado and was long gone, forensic engineer Charles Ivy told the court Thursday morning.

He agreed reluctantly under questioning by Greg Copeland, attorney for USAA Casualty Insurance Co., that the surge would have been enough to destroy the house if the house were still there.

The report Ivy prepared to back up his findings went under the microscope with intensive questioning by Copeland, who lost patience with the witnesses' often rambling responses and complained to U. S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr., "He is not responding in any way."

"Repeat the question," Senter instructed.

The Aikens, represented by George W. Healy IV, are suing USAA and Rimkus Consulting Group Inc., which was employed by USAA, for conspiring to defraud them. They seek full payment of their $680,000 homeowner-insurance policy with USAA, which paid them $178,000.

Earlier testimony came from Rimkus engineers. One inspected the Aikens' property and the other later made changes to that report without communicating with its author, which is against the company's policy.

Rimkus attorney David Ward read verbatim from Ivy's pretrial statement that he got data for his report from a preliminary storm model, and questioned Ivy's reasons for not updating it when better data became available as time went on.

Healy's next witnesses were to be Rimkus employee Paul Coleman and USAA employee David Rummel.

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Experts assert pre-surge tornado damage in USAA trial

Testimony in trial against insurer USAA




By PAM FIRMIN
Published January 17, 2008

GULFPORT --Testifying as expert witnesses, a meteorologist and a forensic engineer Wednesday afternoon described why tornadic force rather than storm surge was most likely responsible for the Katrina destruction of David and Marilyn Aiken's home in Henderson Point.

A lawsuit filed by the Aikens seeks damages and full payment of their $680,000 insurance policy with USAA Casualty Insurance Co., which paid them $178,000 in structural and contents damage. The suit claims USAA and Rimkus Consulting Group Inc., which was employed by USAA, conspired to to defraud them. Earlier testimony revolved around whether changes to a property report by structural engineer James W. Jordan were made to downplay wind damage so USAA would owe less money.

On Wednesday, Day 3 of the trial projected to last several weeks, presiding U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. frequently tried to move proceedings along, one time telling attorneys who haggled over details of intricate meteorological documents that it was "not necessary to go over every bit of the document" and later that "everybody's tired of hearing his jabbering back and forth."

Documents were provided by meteorologist Charles Barrere of Norman, Oka., formerly of the New Orleans area, who said they showed a tornado being tracked by the National Weather Service in New Orleans around 3 a.m. Aug. 29 most likely passed directly over the Aikens' house hours before the waters rose. The eight jurors were able to look at these on monitors in front of their seats.

Dr. Charles Ivy, a forensic engineer from Florida, said it was significant that 90 percent of the nails on surviving beams at the Aiken property were bent in a direction from north to south and that four sturdy frames still standing were "whipped toward the west, leaning toward the direction the water came from. If water caused the destruction, they would have been leaning toward the east."

Court begins today with cross examination of Ivy by USAA attorney Greg Copeland and Rimkus attorney David Ward.

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LA: State Farm Again Beating Up Katrina Survivors

by Ana Maria

There ought to be a national registry of child molesters and insurance company executives because I hold them in the same very low esteem.
- Congressman Gene Taylor

So, let's get this straight. Hurricane Katrina battered homes with its 175 mile-per-hour winds ripping them apart as if made of straw and spit. Then insurance companies like State Farm deliberately and wrongly failed to pay American families for the wind related damages to those homes and the cost of living expenses while the home was being repaired, damages that the wind coverage under homeowner insurance policies cover.

When insurance companies failed to cover the cost of those living expenses, the federal government picked up the tab for the expenses the insurance industry. This unintended insurance industry bailout cost the American taxpayer billions in taxpayer dollars.

Yep, that's what it is: an unintended insurance industry bailout which the American taxpayers funded when insurance industry execs betrayed its customer base in the name of pursuing the Almighty Dollar.

After denying families all or some or substantial amounts of their wind-related claims, after putting these families through an extracted living hell far worse than the damage of Katrina several times over, after forcing many--including U.S. Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) and Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS)--to hire attorneys to sue State Farm, Allstate, and other insurance companies to obtain some funding for the damages caused by those 175 mile-per-hour winds which battered their homes for four hours BEFORE the water ever came ashore, AFTER all of that, State Farm now wants proof that whatever paltry sum of money it finally coughed up has been used to rebuild . . . or the company will cancel the insurance.

Are you kidding me?!

This is the same company that slipped a tiny clause into its homeowner policies, the same company whose agents were left flat footed when they themselves found out about the buried clause, the same company who never bothered to advertise or explain fully the implications of its "concurrent causation" clause--ya think that was deliberate?--the same company that simply sprung its buried clause on its many customers once the company knew full well that it would have to actually pay out for the Hurricane Katrina's damages. Ditto for the rest of Big Insurance companies. What unmitigating gall!

Congressman Gene Taylor's campaign website has this to say about the industry's buried clause.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, insurance companies purposefully and routinely denied homeowners payment for the wind damage that hurricane force winds had caused hours before the water ever arrived, wind damage that homeowner insurance policies should have covered.

State Farm's concurrent clause states "where wind acts concurrently with flooding to cause damage to the insured property, coverage for the loss exists only under flood coverage."

Taylor's website continues.

Insurance companies had buried in their policies a clause that they refer to “concurrent causation.” Insurance companies denied legitimate wind damage claims based on this buried clause. In effect, the concurrent causation clause said that after the four hours of hurricane force winds that hit the Gulf Coast before the water ever got here, if there was one 2x4 left standing and the water knocked it down, the insurance company would call the damage “concurrent”—meaning at the same time. The insurance company would then use the fact that water had also cause some damage to deny homeowners the right to be paid for the wind-related damage to their property.

AFTER all of this, the company now wants to put Katrina's families through some kind of inspection, provide proof of rebuilding, or be dropped for coverage. In plenty of cases, State Farm didn't bother to provide the money for all of the repairs that wind damage required much less the cost-of-living expenses those families incurred after the storm.

Some of that paltry sum of money it may have provided went to buy groceries to feed little Johnny or a few diapers for little Janie or perhaps some clothes for the elderly grandmother when hurricane winds blew her clothes all over South Louisiana.

A Hurricane Katrina victim leaves no doubt that he would like a visit by the State Farm insurance adjuster in Gulfport, Miss., last year. State Farm said Wednesday it will stop writing homeowner polices in Mississippi as fights a number of Katrina-related lawsuits.
Steve Helber / AP file

State Farm, which some around here call Snake Farm, has already stopped writing new policies in Mississippi. Now the company is moving on to our friends and family members in South Louisiana. Congressman Gene Taylor is so very right to equate insurance company execs with child molesters. I also hold in the same low esteem those who aid, abet, enable in substantial manner like their high priced fancy corporate lawyers and law firms dedicated to protecting and defending these two-fisted greedy gutted goons in Gucci suits.

Note: For an easy-to-read explanation, read Concurrent Causation: The Buried Clause in Homeowner Insurance Policies. More entertaining, though, is a short video excerpt from his Insurance Reform Town Hall meeting held last August in which Taylor explains this utterly inconceivable hidden clause that is the culprit of tremendous misery in the Katrina-ravaged region.

© 2008 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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State Farm Wants Proof Hurricane-Damaged Homes Won't Be Left Vacant

(Photo courtesy FEMA/Mark Wolfe.)
Contributor: Shane Myers
January 8, 2008


NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- State Farm is warning that it will cancel homeowner policies for about 6,000 of its customers in south Louisiana if they aren't able to demonstrate that their storm-damaged homes are occupied and are being rebuilt.


State Farm spokesman Gary Stephenson said says the company's goal is to work with customers who want to stay in Louisiana and rebuild their homes.

The company began inspections last April of homes and apartments that generated 75,000 claims following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The company said it has inspected 50,000 so far and expect to continue through August.

State Farm wants to make sure that people are indeed using their claims checks to rebuild, so that the company isn't stuck with the extra risk of insuring vacant or poorly maintained homes. Homes that are abandoned are at higher risk for claims because of fires, vagrants, water pipe leaks, theft or vandalism.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Most of $4.5B in Gulf Coast aid unspent

By Brad Heath, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Three-quarters of the billions in federal money earmarked to replace schools, firehouses and other public works after the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes still haven't been spent, a sign that key pieces of the region's recovery effort are languishing in red tape.

Reports from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), provided to USA TODAY, show it has approved $4.5 billion worth of infrastructure projects in Louisiana and Mississippi. Only about $1 billion of that total has been spent.

Much of the rest is sitting in state accounts waiting to be parceled out to the local officials responsible for the rebuilding work, slowed by a complex tangle of local and federal rules.

"It's time for local governments to start making the tough decisions about what they're going to build back and start moving forward on the permanent recovery," said Robert Josephson, FEMA spokesman.

State and local officials overseeing the recovery say they are moving as quickly as they can to get the projects finished. Many require months of planning and construction, and navigating federal rules has sidetracked hundreds of projects, said Andy Kopplin, the outgoing head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

"Very simply, it's dramatically slowed down the infrastructure reconstruction process. It slows down the recovery," Kopplin said. "Are we satisfied with the rate of construction? Absolutely not. We'd like it to be double that. But the biggest challenge in spending the money has been FEMA's process."

FEMA's public assistance program gives money to states, which generally use it to reimburse local governments for projects once they're complete. That process has created obstacles for New Orleans and other communities, where local laws say money must be in place before work can begin. The city has borrowed $460 million to cover upfront costs.

"This is the first time we've had any significant dollars to push these projects forward," Mayor Ray Nagin said. As a result, he says, rebuilding work should accelerate this year.

Work also was delayed by mistakes in figuring how much repair individual buildings need and how much each would cost, Kopplin said.

More than half of the 27,000 projects in Louisiana have been revised at least once, a process that can take from a few hours to several months, he said.


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Stuck on Stupid: More Katrina Funds Being Wrongly Diverted

Wind or Water?
Image from Mississippi Insurance Forum

by Ana Maria

Are you kidding me?! Taking $3.5 million of Katrina money that the elected representatives of the good people of America stipulated for law enforcement and spend it on the state's capitol, a full three hour plus ride from the Katrina-ravaged Mississippi Gulf Coast? Good grief!!!?!?!?! What is wrong with these priorities?

Recently, I took a trip to Jackson, Mississippi, where the governor intends to spend the money. Everything looked . . . normal. What a joy to ride around and see the area's bright neon lights of area's businesses. Gas stations everywhere. Shopping malls, car dealerships, the works. I even stopped a cop to ask for directions.

Yeah, I still take it for granted that the cop is there to help. I'm from a small town where hearing sirens gives me thrills, not chills. See, police sirens remind me of . . . Mardi Gras! That glorious season from January until the day before the Catholic season of Lent begins. To this day, when I hear sirens, I think of that first. What can I say, childhood socialization is very powerful. ;)

I know, I know. You may be thinking to yourself, "Uh, yeah, honey. What else do you see in a city except those disgusting neon signs trying to grab our attention and blurring the beauty of the skyline? Where in the world has this woman been living?!" And the answer is . . . inside the Katrina-ravaged region, my friend. For ten months now, I've been living in the Katrina-ravaged region, and it is NOT Fun City, USA, either.

Our cities have had to battle with the Republican White House to waive the 10% matching funds requirement usually accompanying federal grants to municipalities. The compassionless ones sitting in the White House and their counterparts in the previously Republican-controlled Congress didn't see fit to use the brains God gave them to waive the requirement automatically--as had been done in other disasters such as 9/11. No ma'am, the American people had to elect a Democratically-controlled Congress for this kind of compassion and common sense to be implemented.

When Hurricane Katrina devastated, demolished, and destroyed homes and businesses throughout the Mississippi Gulf Coast, our tax base was blown away with 175 mile-per-hour winds. Indeed, Hurricane Katrina blew away our home, places of worship, businesses, community centers, schools, businesses, and government buildings (jails, court house, police stations, fire stations, libraries, etc. and so forth).

Then, the Republican-lovin' insurance industry decided to have its way with us as well. Insurance companies like State Farm, Allstate, and Nationwide deliberately failed to pay on wind-related damages to our homes and businesses. Since May 2007, off course, I have written extensively on how the insurance industry purposefully betrayed its customers with abandon denying their wind damage claims and the devastating financial impact this betrayal has had on the every day lives of those of us living with decisions of those corporate greedy gutted goons. [See my diaries at Daily Kos for a quick read through my writings.]

Months ago, Barbour was trying to divert $600 million of low income housing monies to refurbish the Port of Gulfport. Now, the port needs financial help, that is certain. However, the elected representatives of the American people had appropriated for low income housing. Take a drive from one end of the Mississippi coast line to the other and you'll see a whole lot of nothing going on—to paraphrase the infamous words of Jerry Lee Lewis.

The photo from Coastal Cowboy's Mississippi Insurance forum? TODAY, you can go up and down plenty of streets of any city along the Mississippi Gulf Coast to see lots that remain looking just as the picture looks. Images like this could reflect the remains of what is left of someone's beautiful middle class home or a booming business.

See, businesses can't get up and running without two things. First, all things insurance from being paid for the wind damage to their businesses to purchasing affordable and available insurance on their buildings, goods, and business income. Second, they need employees to staff their businesses.

However, without housing for their employees and employees' families, the businesses are up the creek without a paddle. Can't build affordable housing when insurance is unaffordable or unavailable. Watch the short video of Tish Haas Williams, Hancock County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, to get the message that businesses the insurance barriers removed and need it to thrive. Tish expresses this sentiment in no uncertain terms, and yes, that means passing Congressman Gene Taylor's multiple peril insurance legislation which now requires action from the U.S. Senate.

We need financial assistance just to get to our knees, as Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo says. Help us to our knees, and we'll get to our feet, Longo told the crowd at an early morning Katrina memorial this past August, the second anniversary of the storm.

So, this becomes our dilemma. We need the money for plenty of things, Congress appropriates it, and Republican Haley Barbour tries to squirrel away some of it for other purposes. This is crazy, particularly since the rest of the country thinks the Gulf Coast is back up and running as if Katrina were but a nightmare many years ago. Heck even folks here in the state of Mississippi think we're back up and running. With the governor himself acting as if we're so up-and-running that he can divert money for other needs, how else are the folks suppose to think? Short of coming down here and driving the beach road or through any of the beach towns where lot after lot after lot remains empty, who is going to drive home the point that we're all still working on making our vibrant recovery dream come true? Clearly, the most logical one for that important job is our very own Governor Haley Barbour. He should be the PR ambassador of our plight, our needs, and the torch bearer of our vibrant recovery dreams.

When it comes to this latest financial diversion, I completely agree with state representative Diane Peranich in her assessment of this disturbing new development in the way that the Governor is handling Katrina monies.

Rep. Diane Peranich, D-Pass Christian, who had not heard about the grant to the city of Jackson, said Thursday that South Mississippi should get all of the money, which the governor controls, because the federal government gave it for Katrina recovery.

"If he has given $40 million, it is still not enough, and the money was allocated from the federal government for that purpose," Peranich said. "I would hope that any of the monies were given for law enforcement on the Coast would go to the Coast.

"We're very grateful for the support and help that we have gotten, but we are not whole." Peranich said she hoped the remaining $3.5 million would be spent in South Mississippi. There are still many problems at the Harrison County jail, and many departments along the Coast need to replace their equipment, she said.

I am certain that there are plenty of unmet needs outside of what the Congress has addressed. I am equally certain that Governor Barbour's expert lobbying skills and connections can easily be put to great use to go to his buddies in the White House to obtain the needed funding without this shell game that is hurtful.

More than that, though, I know that down here inside Katrina Land, we are weary. We've been beaten up by Katrina, betrayed by our insurance companies, abandoned by FEMA, and neglected by the White House except at photo op time. We're tired and exhausted just putting one foot in front of the other. My very first blog entry was titled "Like Walking Through Glue." Those sentiments remains true today.

I just wish that when Governor Barbour tries to run off with money that should go to the Gulf Coast, his feet were glued in place. Perhaps then we could see all the money already given for our needs flow more quickly to the Mississippi Gulf Coast rather than stuck inside the Governor's hands.

With so many unmet needs for which these funds can legitimately address, we deserve an intelligent use of these funds as had been intended when Congress gave us the money with the flexibility to address our needs based on our own priorities. When it comes to setting those priorities, the White House and Mississippi's governor's mansion continue to exhibit their gears are purposefully stuck on stupid.


© 2008 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Wind Claim Dumping on the Flood Program: The Mechanics

Below is a great piece published by Coastal Cowboy on Mississippi Insurance Forum.

Folks, Sop used actual photographs to explain the concept of claims dumping on his earlier post on the topic, the visual account of which set a site visit record for our little corner of the Internet. Now this Cowboy is gonna explain how big insurance did it, dumping their contractual wind obligations of the U.S. taxpayer. In a whistle blower lawsuit filed over New Orleans way the public adjusters projected that if the error rate they found held true, us taxpayers were bilked out of over $9 BILLION dollars by big insurance.

Some examples found by the public adjusters include:

"a group of four-plex apartments in eastern New Orleans were compensated for flood damage with taxpayer money even though they experienced no flooding. Each building in same complex was paid only a pittance for severe wind damage on its regular property insurance policies. American National Property & Casualty Insurance Co., or ANPAC Louisiana Insurance Co., paid the owner of several buildings in the Versailles Gardens subdivision on Alsace Street about $95,000 in flood damages, or about half the value of each property's individual $200,000 flood policy, even though no flood waters got inside the buildings."

Over here in Mississippi, State Farm used faulty and on occasion even altered engineered reports to dump their wind obligations on us. Take a look at these two engineering reports, the first one authored by engineer Paul Monie and verified by him as his work product. The second one was altered to let State Farm off the hook without his knowledge or consent. After Steve helped Mr. Beckham track down Paul Monie and it was brought to light that State Farm and their lackeys at Rimkus engineering had no problem defrauding a 70 year old man guess what happened next? You got it folks, State Farm experienced a Come to Jesus moment and paid Mr. Beckham. In fact they paid him so much money he can't talk about it any more. This Cowboy can talk about how them crooks tried to steal from an old man though and he just did. :)

In fact, thanks to Congressman Gene Taylor we got us a whole list of examples of how crooks in Gucci suits and their scalleywag corporate lawyer enablers tried to screw the good folks on the coast who lost their houses out of big money. We started with ole man Beckham cause Steve knows him but he ain't the only one by a long shot.

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Katrina funds for Jackson?

Coast opposes Barbour's pledge

By MICHAEL NEWSOM
published January 11, 2008

JACKSON --Gov. Haley Barbour has pledged $3.5 million in federal Hurricane Katrina relief money to help fight crime in Hinds County and Jackson.

But some say the money should go to South Mississippi, because it is intended for hurricane-damaged areas.
The money for the Jackson area would hire a judge, more prosecutors and other law enforcement.

But some prosecutors in South Mississippi are worried about losing attorneys and investigators they were able to hire with part of the same federal law enforcement grants after the storm.>

The money is part of $47 million in federal law enforcement money given to the state. Barbour said Thursday the state had the ability to disburse the law enforcement funds in the counties that make up the Gulf Opportunity Zone. He said the storm did serious damage from Columbus to points southward.

"We are allowing some of the counties that we did not allow to get any of the original monies," Barbour said. "There are 48 counties in the Gulf Opportunity Zone and most of them we did not allow to ask for law enforcement grants in the first round because the needs on the Coast were so great."

Barbour said governments couldn't get money for the same purpose twice under the program, but there is still about $3.5 million to be awarded. When asked if he thought the money was enough, Barbour said the state "never expected to get this."

But Rep. Diane Peranich, D-Pass Christian, who had not heard about the grant to the city of Jackson, said Thursday that South Mississippi should get all of the money, which the governor controls, because the federal government gave it for Katrina recovery.

"If he has given $40 million, it is still not enough, and the money was allocated from the federal government for that purpose," Peranich said. "I would hope that any of the monies were given for law enforcement on the Coast would go to the Coast.

"We're very grateful for the support and help that we have gotten, but we are not whole."

Peranich said she hoped the remaining $3.5 million would be spent in South Mississippi. There are still many problems at the Harrison County jail, and many departments along the Coast need to replace their equipment, she said.

Rep. Billy Broomfield, D-Moss Point, said he had not heard about the grant for the Capitol area, but as it doesn't involve money from the Legislature, he has no control over it. He said a bill he supported would have given the Legislature oversight of federal Katrina money; it was killed in the Senate in a previous legislative session.

None interviewed for this story questioned whether Hinds County and Jackson needed more money for law enforcement. The $3.5 million grant gives the area the ability to hire a full-time circuit judge, two assistant district attorneys, one new public defender and more legal staff. The money would also fund investigations teams composed of law enforcement officers from several agencies.

Jackson County District Attorney Tony Lawrence, a Republican, said his office is still dealing with higher caseloads than before the storm. In September, Lawrence will lose the extra prosecutors and other workers he was able to hire with the federal money. He said he was grateful for the funding and he understands the federal grant was not to be given twice for the same purpose.

He hopes the Legislature will provide money to help South Mississippi's law enforcement agencies; he said the Mississippi Prosecutors Association has drafted a bill to submit.

Lawrence said court dockets have swelled on the Coast now because of a spike in home-repair fraud cases, and drug-related arrests. There are whole new populations living in the area than before the storm, and they have brought more crime with them.

"The issue I have is not a federal grant issue, but a state issue," Lawrence said. "We got the federal grant, but now it is time for the Legislature to step up."


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© 2008 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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MDA Meets With East Biloxians About Grants

By Brad Kessie
Jan 10, 2008

Much of the struggle to reinvigorate east Biloxi focuses on cash. Many residents who'd like to rebuild need financial assistance. Yet when they apply for homeowners grants, they seem to get tied up in red tape.

On Thursday, the Mississippi Development Authority tried to help people cut through the bureaucracy. The MDA sent agents to east Biloxi. They answered questions that should help people qualify for homeowner grants -- grants that will rebuild a lot more east Biloxi homes.

A few blocks east of MDA's temporary service center, a wobbly looking house on Collier Street was undergoing a massive makeover. Charlie Whitestone was on his 14th volunteer mission with Project Rehab out of northern Virginia.

"It's the hands, the hands that do the labor that make it work," he said.

All around Project Rehab volunteers were east Biloxi homes that can only be rebuilt if property owners receive MDA grants. At the service center, a Biloxi man arrived to meet with MDA agents.

"It's plenty important," he said.

He was at the MDA location to help a neighbor. Grant assistance "would mean a lot to her. It really would," he thought.

The Mississippi Development Authority began its homeowners assistance program in April, 2006. And since then, it's paid out $1.2 billion to eligible applicants. According to MDA, 87 percent of the people who filled out applications in phase one got paid. So have half the people who applied in phase two.

Now, MDA representative Donna Sanford says the push is on to get more flood surge victims the rebuilding grants they desperately need. Sanford watched one east Biloxi woman straighten out her grant situation, and then smile.

"The lady came out awhile ago and said I'm going to sleep so much better tonight," Sanford remembered. "And that makes all the long days worth everything you do. It's great."

Sanford and her MDA team set up a temporary service center in east Biloxi. From now through Saturday, homeowners can visit the Division Street location and get homeowner grant questions answered.

"We're making a media push to get people who haven't applied to come in and apply, so we can reach those last people," she said.

On Collier Street, the Ly family got a gift that trumped the grant program. Project Rehab made sure the Lys didn't have to pay a dime to salvage their house.

"It makes you feel good," Project Rehab's Charlie Whitestone said. "Like we're doing something that, like I said, is part of God's work."

MDA representatives will be back at the Hope Coordination Center on Division Street Friday and Saturday. The development authority also has offices at Singing River Mall, Prime Outlet, and the government building in Bay St. Louis.

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