A Post Katrina Boom?

The Washington Post is reporting that parts of Mississippi are undergoing a boom, with speculators and businesses coming in to build, rebuild, or relocate following the devastation caused by Katrina.

Six months after Hurricane Katrina smashed through a fragile necklace of Mississippi coastal towns, the region is enjoying a post-storm boom. Fueled by insurance money, federal reconstruction aid and speculative capital, surviving hotels and restaurants are filled to overflowing, beachfront land prices are soaring, and developers are placing billion-dollar bets that shattered antebellum mansions will give rise to condominium resorts.

The shared sense here is that Mississippi's recovery, while still in its early stages and reliant on continuing outside help, is moving much faster than Louisiana's. Blessed with less damage, more federal aid and greater political clout -- and know-how from past storms -- Mississippi's lightly populated coastline is emerging from chaos, while large parts of the metropolis next door remain a silent, rotting wasteland.

Now, that's not entirely true. Mississippi bore the brunt of the storm - the storm surges were higher, went further inland, and caused widespread destruction.

The key fact that the article gets correct is that the population density was much lower in Mississippi, which meant fewer people were killed, and the fact that Gov. Barbour knows President Bush personally doesn't hurt matters either. And then there are the private businesses who are looking at the area as an opportunity:

But evidence of short-term recovery is everywhere in the cities President Bush visited this week. In Biloxi, a city of 50,000 that lost a quarter of its structures to Katrina, the three casinos that have reopened did $63 million of business in January -- close to the $83 million taken in by the city's nine gambling venues a year ago.

Harrah's Entertainment is building two new casinos at a cost of more than $1 billion. Landry's wants to build a Golden Nugget casino and boardwalk on part of 23 parcels it has bought, and MGM Mirage is pouring $1 billion into its Beau Rivage resort. The city has approved a $500 million Bacaran Bay casino complex.

Brent Warr, mayor of neighboring Gulfport (population 72,000), said the nation's discovery of the area's 26 miles of white-sand beaches has boosted land prices along the devastated shoreline by 50 percent -- between $1 million and $2 million an acre. Investors are also seizing on federal post-storm tax legislation, which lets companies immediately write off half the cost of new investments.

The problems facing New Orleans and Louisiana are far more entrenched. A bureaucracy that refuses to streamline. Corrupt and inept officials. A failure to properly oversee flood control before the storms hit and an inability to see past parochial and pork barrel projects when initially asking for assistance from the federal government.

Mississippi, and the gaming companies envision the state's coast as an eventual gambling destination:

In neighboring Biloxi, veteran Mayor A.J. Holloway, 66, expects that casino operators will more than double their pre-Katrina presence of 15,000 jobs and 7,000 hotel rooms in the region, which has been historically reliant on the military, seafood processing and shipbuilding.

"My prediction is . . . within the next 10 or 12 years, Biloxi will be the second casino revenue-producing center in the United States," said Holloway, a 13-year incumbent who has steered a pro-business recovery. "Casino gaming is going to be the economic engine for Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast."

Diversification is a good thing, but reliance on gambling causes problems of its own. However, tourism will definitely aid the region's resurgence. Mississippi is moving forward with a plan while Louisiana is still trying to figure out what to do.

Indeed, New Orleans still can't demolish thousands of properties destroyed by flooding because of lawsuits. In fact, the first 120 homes that were slated for immediate demolition were finally taken down this past week. That's six months after the hurricane hit.

UPDATE:
And here's a Katrina bust: Nearly $2 billion in federal funds have gone unclaimed because states weren't willing to go through the paperwork to try and claim funds meant to assist families recovering from Katrina.

Congress approved a $2 billion block grant program in September for displaced Gulf Coast families — regardless of income — to help them get back on their feet after the Aug. 29 storm.

But only 11 states have made requests totaling $25.5 million in aid so far, according to the Health and Human Services Department. Several states said they didn’t want the bureaucratic hassle, or weren’t certain if displaced families qualified for aid under the program.

The deadline for this aid is August 31.

Congress loosened the eligibility rules so evacuees who lost their homes, jobs and cars could get cash payments regardless of their income level over a 12-month period until Aug. 31 — if they weren’t already receiving TANF funds somewhere else. Funds that are unclaimed by the end of August go back into the federal coffers.

Several states, including Florida, Louisiana and Texas, have quickly taken advantage. Texas, which houses many of the displaced evacuees, has been awarded $7.13 million from the federal fund to help 6,200 evacuee families.

But many others, including New York, are doling out aid from their own coffers, saying the federal aid isn’t worth the hassle. The states say they don’t have enough qualifying families to justify the amount of paperwork needed to document the claims.

In the meantime, families that might need assistance may not get it. And who will be to blame for that situation?

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour.