The governor outlined how she wanted to use $6.2 billion in federal hurricane recovery block grants and $1.5 billion in federal aid to minimize future damage from flooding. Most of the aid, about $5.6 billion would go to housing assistance.Early requests from Louisiana pegged reconstruction costs at $250 billion and set off alarm bells because of numerous instances of porkbarrel projects being slipped in to the request - namely items that had nothing to do with reconstruction or rebuilding critical infrastructure. Gov. Blanco says she's ready to play hardball with the Administration. Good for her, though I think she might want to bring something more than a whiffle ball bat. Serious requests grounded in what the state really needs - levee reconstruction and fortification as determined by the Army Corps of Engineers and independent consultants (such as those from LSU) to make sure that the system lives up to its claimed tolerances, bridges and roads replaced/repaired to restore critical links, and aid to those homeowners who lacked flood insurance and were flooded out despite not being in recognized flood zones.
The special session, which must end by Feb. 17, was the second Blanco has called to cope with the damage of Katrina and Rita, which struck Louisiana Aug. 29 and Sept. 24.
Republican Rep. Jim Tucker, chairman of the House GOP caucus, said he was relieved to hear Blanco spell out her plan for spending the federal money. "At least she gave us a basic plan for how the money is going to be spent," Tucker said.
The governor went further than ever before in laying out details for how she wants to invest $7.7 billion the federal government has allocated to Louisiana in block grants and hazard mitigation funds.State senators believe that the levee board merger is a dead deal.
Subject to approval by the Louisiana Recovery Authority and a legislative budget committee, Blanco said she would spend $4.6 billion to help homeowners repair, rebuild or relocate their homes. Another $1 billion would be used to develop affordable housing.
To breathe life back into hospitals, schools and utilities, she would spend $1.75 billion there, while $350 million would go toward job growth, such as business incentives, bridge loans and work force training.
The emphasis on housing is significant, because the administration feels left out in the cold on the subject after Bush rejected the so-called Baker bill, a proposal with wide support on the local and state levels that would create a public-private incentive program to keep mortgage companies and homeowners from failing financially because of blighted property.
Proponents of turning patronage-laden southeast Louisiana levee boards into one state-controlled agency packed a Senate committee room Wednesday and were flatly told by two lawmakers that there is no hope for the proposal.Meanwhile, while the power grid has been largely restored, the ability of residents to restore power to their homes or businesses is largely a game of chance - there are simply too few inspectors to check each home to make sure they were properly repaired from flood damage so there's a huge backlog of homes awaiting inspection. Some are breaking the law, and quite possibly putting themselves in harms' way by hooking up their homes without the inspections.
Five months after Katrina plunged New Orleans into darkness, roughly 124,000 homes and businesses — or more than 66 percent of the city's structures — still have no electricity, according to the utility, Entergy New Orleans.That dysfunction can't be blamed on anyone other than the state and local officials who aren't putting enough effort into making sure there are sufficient numbers of inspectors to check the city's wiring. The city has only six inspectors. Wanna bet that being connected politically may assist in getting connected to the power grid?
The really frustrating part is that since December, power has been restored to 90 percent of the electrical grid — and the street lights are back on in many neighborhoods — yet only one-third of homeowners can draw juice into their homes.
That is largely because the city requires a permit before the utility can reconnect a meter at any home whose wiring was damaged by flooding. Getting that permit from one of the city's few electrical inspectors has been a bureaucratic nightmare involving phone calls, waiting in line at city offices and waiting some more at home.
Paul at Wizbang reports that the Army Corps of Engineers is facing a big problem - their own flood control manual belies the claims the Corps has made regarding the strength of the levees. The flooding in and around New Orleans was exascerbated by Corps failures - not the hurricane's intensity.
Paul's also complaining about the pace of the cleanup, but as I noted in his comments, it took nearly 8.5 months for the contractors working with the government to clean up the WTC debris - about 2 million tons spread over about 20 acres. The hurricane damage is far more widespread, there are more people and companies involved, and the local authorities have to take some responsibility on the slow pace of cleanup as well. Louisiana may have screwed itself when they requested $250 billion off the bat not to mention Gov. Blanco's preening and hissyfits - but neighboring Mississippi has the advantage of Gov. Hailey Barbour, who was a bigwig in the GOP for years.
This isn't meant to serve as an excuse for the slow pace, but to note that the cleanup is slow and we shouldn't accept excuses - the feds, state, and local authorities should be working around the clock to get this done (as was done in Lower Manhattan btw).
A poll being conducted by a New Orleans tv station shows that Mitch Landrieu is leading by a significant margin over Whiplash Nagin and four other candidates:
Jimmy Fahrenholtz 2.8%
Ron Forman 29.1%
Mike Hammer 3.8%
Mitch Landrieu 40.4%
Ray Nagin 17.5%
Peggy Wilson 6.4%
Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour.
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