FEMA has announced they will not be in Jackson County for two more weeks, so local officials cannot bid out any repairs in the meanwhile for road repair, sewer, electric, etc. FEMA says they cannot even have debris cleared, except for moving it off of a roadway, because otherwise it may not have been the low bid and FEMA will not reimburse them, and because FEMA is considering having all debris cleared by Army Corps of Engineers.
The reason FEMA gave for the two-week wait was that they wanted housing and food for "their people" to be set up before they came. About 90% of the people in the city of Pascagoula alone do not have housing at the moment.
I thought their job would be to be prepared to bring their own infrastructure with them, since by definition they would be going into a location that was destroyed. But apparently this is not the case. So now not only can city and county officials not improve the situation in the county, for instance work on getting clean drinking water for everyone, but now they have the additional burden of providing infrastructure for FEMA workers, while they continue to go without themselves.
Meanwhile...Jackson County is actually in the best shape of the three coastal counties. Since the situation in Harrison, and I suspect Hancock as well, is about to become untenable, you'd think since Jackson County is raring to go with cleanup, FEMA would want to encourage it, so they'd have an easier time getting to Harrison County.
My SIL's brother who lost his home in Ocean Springs is staying with friends in Biloxi but says now the smell of the bodies permates the air everywhere. We're trying to talk him into leaving before the gas shortage prevents him from doing so. I think it is only a matter of time in those other two counties before everyone has to be removed quickly because of the possible spread of disease. I think that time is coming very quickly, in the next couple days.
(Lets leave the job of moderation to the Moderators)
Edited by Ed Dunham (Mon Sep 05 2005 11:38 PM)
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