Gulf Coast Leaders Deal With a New Hurricane Recovery Deadline

The Governor has told Gulf Coast leaders that Hurricane Katrina recovery money needs to be spent now. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on why 3 ½ years after the storm there’s still so much of it left.

2.8 billion dollars, that’s how much money there is left in Katrina rebuilding funds almost four years after the storm. The Governor has given a deadline of September 1st for dirt turned on the projects associated with those funds, or he is taking the money back. While most local leaders on the Coast agree that things need to move faster it sometimes isn’t as easy as it looks. Moss Point Mayor Xavier Bishop says small cities like his are often dependant on contractors,

“Assuming we do our part, and we are going to make every effort to do that, how do we get the contractors and vendors to do their part as well.”

Don Allee, the Executive Director of the State Port Authority at Gulfport has spent the last 3 ½ years rebuilding a port that was completely destroyed by the storm. He is working closely with FEMA Public Assistance funds. The Governor is recommending that all FEMA funds be allocated by June 30th. Allee says he knows that they are working at a pace slower than anyone likes but rushing into things might not be the right answer,

“If everybody takes the attitude, damn the torpedoes we’ll work out the details later, that’s where the opportunity to create a tremendous of waste occurs. We’re trying to prevent that from happening.”

Governor Barbour says he wants everyone to take his deadlines seriously,

“I’m not going to ignore the risk that the states going to have money taken away from us if we don’t spend it.”

The Governor will meet with the Secretary of Homeland Security today to discuss how better to deal with the 1.2 billion dollars still remaining in FEMA assistance funds. For MPB News, I’m Phoebe Judge in Gulfport.