Storms 411

Day 107 – 12/6/05, 20,000 New Homes For New Orleans

(AP) The first major housing investment in the New Orleans region since Hurricane Katrina will come from a California home builder planning a community with as many as 20,000 homes.

The venture, called KB Home/Shaw Louisiana LLC, would build new homes "with the goal of providing permanent housing and increased economic development" in Louisiana, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We want to rebuild New Orleans," said Bruce Karatz, chairman and chief executive of KB Home, which has partnered with The Shaw Group of Baton Rouge to buy a 3,000-acre tract near Avondale in Jefferson Parish. [Read more - CBSnews]

Day 99 – 11/28/05, Frustrated residents wait for electrical hookup for trailers

Several residents in the Hollygrove neighborhood say they’re frustrated because they have trailers to live in but no electricity to make them livable.

At least eight to ten homes in Hollygrove are now equipped with trailers for residents who wish to work on their home while living right in front of it, according to Herman Nathan.

He said the trailers sit empty as they wait for Entergy to hook up electric service. Nathan said the trailers already have sewerage and phone lines.

Entergy spokesperson Amy Stallings said the delay comes from a requirement that a licensed electrician inspect the property and obtain a permit before Entergy hooks up service.

According to Stallings, once the permit is in place and the licensed electrician has inspected the home, it will take between five and seven days to have service installed.

FEMA representatives said the process is going more smoothly in the city of Slidell where officials and Cleco (the power company serving Slidell) agreed that electrical contractors could hook up service without a permit.

Those representatives said that New Orleans hasn’t waived that process, but that officials are working to streamline the process.

Some residents aren’t waiting though, they’ve installed generators to power their temporary homes.

Day 100 – 11/29/05, Students pour in Monday as New Orleans reopens its first public school since Hurricane Katrina

In the back of the cafeteria at Ben Franklin Elementary, as New Orleans public school officials celebrated the reopening of the first district school since Katrina, it was a day of little joy for kindergartener Tyler Felix.

The 5-year-old, a Franklin student before the storm, arrived Monday in a red polo shirt with the school insignia to face a jarring reality that left him dabbing away tears with a powder blue tissue. "Not one single member of his class returned," said his mother, Elise, adding that his teacher also would not be back. "He was kind of upset."

Across the river at Edna Karr, a recently chartered secondary school in Algiers that began registration Monday, senior Ryaunte Richard, the school's class president before Katrina, wondered if anything will be the same there when classes start Dec. 14. [Read more - NOLA]

Day 92 – 11/21/05, State to allocate $200 million in bond money for low-interest home loans

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A program allocating close to $200 million worth of bond money for low-interest loans to help repair or rehabilitate housing for victims of recent hurricanes was announced Monday by Gov. Kathleen Blanco, and members of the Legislature, including members of the Legislative Black Caucus and the chairman of the House Republican Caucus.

The loans will be financed through bonds sold through the Louisiana Housing Finance Authority. About $100 million will go for loans to approximately 2,000 homeowners for repairs or rehabilitation of owner-occupied homes.

Another $95 million in bond money will be dedicated to finance the repair and construction of affordable rental housing.

Black Caucus chairman Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, praised Blanco for signing executive orders to implement the programs and credited Rep. Jim Tucker, a New Orleans area Republican and chairman of the House Republican Caucus, with helping work out the plan.

Residents at oil spill site told not to move back

Residents near a New Orleans-area oil refinery spill who moved back into their homes should not have been allowed to do so if those homes show oil damage, federal officials said Thursday.

Some 1,700 homes were affected when Hurricane Katrina toppled a storage tank at the Murphy Oil refinery in the Meraux-Chalmette area. Oil from the spill mixed in with floodwaters from Katrina, flooding those homes.

Howard Frumkin, director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, told reporters that a new report by the federal agency advises against “moving back into homes that have visible oil contamination.” [Reas more - MSNBC]

Day 73 – 11/2/05, Damaged housing projects to be rebuilt as mixed use, mixed income

Housing projects destroyed by Hurricane Katrina will be rebuilt as mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhoods, with $1.8 billion planned to begin work in Louisiana and Mississippi, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said Wednesday.

"Within the next two weeks, we will begin to see results," he said, without giving details.

The $1.8 billion is part of President Bush's request for $17.1 billion for long-term recovery along the Gulf of Mexico. "It will be the first of many" allocations, Jackson told reporters after meeting with four City Council members whose districts include housing projects. [Read more - WWL]

Day 67 – 10/27/05, Future of flooded homes muddled

Although more than 200 people packed into a New Orleans hotel room wanted Mayor Ray Nagin to address a sheaf of topics Wednesday, he knew one question was paramount: What is going to happen to my house?

Nagin opened his remarks with a complicated answer, leaving some in the audience as confused as ever. Federal officials monitoring the proceeding said portions of Nagin's speech were incorrect. Federal and City Hall officials even disagree on the number of houses facing demolition, with the fate of thousands of residences perhaps hanging in the balance.

But Nagin did deliver the gist, unpleasant as it was, of the matter: New Orleans homeowners will be forced to make hard and sometimes costly decisions based not only on layers of local and federal rules and regulations, but also on geography. [Link - NOLA]

Day 66 – 10/26/05, State's cease-fire on evictions ends

After riffling through a thick stack of papers, Charles Wilson pulled out a sheet, marched briskly up to a house, knocked and yelled "Constable!" Hearing no answer, he taped the summons for an eviction hearing to the front door, retreated through the trash-strewn yard and repeated the sequence at a house across the street -- and again at two homes around the corner and down the block.

After a 59-day eviction moratorium ordered by Gov. Kathleen Blanco in the wake of Hurricane Katrina expired Tuesday, landlords pressed Wilson and other constables across much of the New Orleans area to remove tenants so they can repair storm-damaged rental properties.

Constable Dan Civello of Jefferson Parish's 5th Justice Court in Metairie, for example, said he normally serves just a handful of eviction papers per day. [Read more - NOLA]

Day 53 – 10/13/05, Organizers vow Mardi Gras will go on

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Mardi Gras organizers promised Wednesday to roll out the city's signature celebration in February despite the widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Tourism officials, float builders and parade hosts appeared before the City Council to insist the annual pre-Lent celebration -- part family party, part Bacchanalian blowout -- returns this winter.

"We have to do this," said Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson. "We can't afford to miss a beat."

Mardi Gras organizers said about 25 groups are planning to stage their parades, about a half-dozen fewer than normal. Besides that, they offered no specifics on scaling back the celebration that culminates on Fat Tuesday, which falls on February 28 next year. [Read more - CNN]

Day 52 – 10/12/05, New Orleans colleges hit recruiting road

DURHAM, New Hampshire (AP) -- The college fair at a University of New Hampshire gymnasium is a regular stop on Rae-Anne Mena's annual circuit through the Northeast. Her job is talking up Loyola University of New Orleans -- its Jesuit service mission, its strong core curriculum, its academic programs and sports teams.

But this year, as students and parents snake along the rows of tables toward Loyola's, they look surprised to see her.

"Are you under water?" several ask. "When will you reopen?"

Some offer friendly encouragement, others crack jokes within earshot. "I hear their best major now is scuba diving," one man says to his son as they walk past. [Read more - CNN]