As Hurricane Ida reminds us, where we choose to work, pray, play and to call home can be a perilous area, even in November.

Along the awe-inspiring coast of the Gulf of Mexico, millions of Americans enjoy pleasures like coastal breezes, outstanding food, fishing, boating, and many other unique amenities of life.

But (the word that’s always in the back of our minds), no matter where you choose to live, there always will loom the possibility of disaster albiet catastrophe.

The unexpected fire, unprecedented blizzard, unparalelled earthquake, or the monumental flood just hasn’t happened yet.

Emergency experts say the key to survival is preparation. And, as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike and others before have taught us, prayer, vigilance, preserverance, and resilency are just as important. Some folks have it, and some don’t.

I’m not knocking those waiting for the next disaster so that they can give up on the place they were born, or who no longer want to call the Gulf Coast home. But (the word again), for some of us – NO, we’re not leaving – at least not until the next mandatory evacuation followed by the predicted doomsday scenario, when the forces of nature force us out.

Just a reminder that the Academy Award-nominated, Sundance Film Festival Best Documentary “Trouble The Water” was released on DVD a few weeks ago, on August 25.

This remarkable piece of work is unlike any other Katrina-themed documentary ever made, and is raw, inspiring, surrealistic, and subtly sensational, but that’s only a part of what makes it one of the best documentaries of any kind produced in recent memory. It’s so good, I watched it twice already.

Anyone connected through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita should make it a point to see this movie, if you haven’t already (apologies to Kim, Scott, Tia, Carl and even Brian for taking so long to spread the word). Register and leave your opinions below.

The DVD is on sale at most major disc outlets. It’s also available for rent or sale from New Orleans DVD at its DVD machines in Laplace and Harvey, LA. Watch the trailer here:

A couple of reporters for the non-profit website ProPublica.org looked into the Katrina-era incidents involving Dr Anna Pou at Memorial Medical Center and shootings by self-proclaimed vigilantes, and share their views in this video from Bloggingheads.tv:

Even though the President didn’t make it to the Gulf Coast for Katrina’s anniversary this year, we all know he deserves a vacation. And even during vacation, he sent a message. Watch it here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32607347#32607347

The Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) has announced they will open the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section Eight) waiting list from September 6 to September 12, 2009.

Applications can be picked up from the following branches of the New Orleans Public Library:

• MAIN BRANCH NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC LIBRARY—219 LOYOLA AV
• ALGIERS REGIONAL BRANCH LIBRARY—3014 HOLIDAY DR
• ALVAR BRANCH LIBRARY—913 ALVAR ST
• CHILDREN’S RESOURCE CENTER—913 NAPOLEON AV
• CITA DENNIS HUBBELL BRANCH LIBRARY—725 PELICAN AV
• ROSA KELLER BRANCH LIBRARY—4300 S. BROAD ST
• LAKEVIEW BRANCH LIBRARY—6317 ARGONNE BLVD
• LATTER BRANCH LIBRARY—5120 ST. CHARLES AV
• MARTIN LUTHER KING BRANCH LIBRARY—1611 CAFFIN AV
• MID CITY BRANCH LIBRARY—330 N. CARROLLTON AV
• NIX BRANCH LIBRARY—1401 S. CARROLLTON AV

The agency also claims applications can be downloaded from their website, www.hano.org, but alas, several Katrina survivors reported there is no appplication download link available.

The application will also be published on the Times-Picayune on August 23, 26, or 29, 2009, or the Louisiana Weekly on August 27, 2009.

Completed applications will only be accepted by mail at the following address and must be postmarked no later than September 12, 2009 and mailed to:

SMART, INC
ATTN: HOUSING AUTHORITY OF NEW ORLEANS
P. O. BOX 57346
NEW ORLEANS LA 70157-7346
The forms can also be emailed to: hanowaitlist@smartinc1.com

No hand delivered applications will be accepted at HANO’s offices and applications postmarked or emailed before 9/06/09 or AFTER 9/12/09 WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED

HANO will conduct a lottery to determine an applicant’s place on the waiting list, and they will be notified by mail of their position on the list.

Remember, applications should NOT be mailed before September 6.

Certain guests at Daniel Yeh’s hotel in Galveston after Hurricane Katrina had rooms paid for by FEMA, and Yeh probably thought he’d latched onto an easy way to guaranteed guests and payments. Problem was, the guests weren’t really guests or Katrina evacuees, or the rooms were unoccupied, or were even occupied with paying guests.

Yeh, 55, of Sugarland, Texas, an owner of the Flagship Hotel (a Galveston landmark which sits on piers over Gulf of Mexico waters and suffered damages from Hurricane Ike) was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $30,000 in fines on September 26 because of his scheme.

Yeh has already repaid about $232,000 to the government in restitution, not long after search warrants were served on him in December, 2005. He had faced a maximum of five years in prison without parole and fines of up to $250,000. His sentencing originally had been set for Feb. 1, 2008.

His attorneys had filed a defense motion for a lower sentence because of a claim that diminished mental capacity due to a brain tumor caused him to hatch the scheme. The federal judge rightfully called the medical testimony comparable to “Alice in Wonderland”.

A 39-count 2006 indictment alleged that between October 1, 2005, and December 15, 2005, Yeh knowingly devised a scheme to defraud the federal disaster relief programs of at least $232,000.

In October 2005, Yeh gave a desk clerk about 30 names to put into the hotel’s reservation system at the “FEMA rate” of $84.99 a night. He then picked up the room cards for the rooms and started billing FEMA. An investigation found a number of those people were Yeh’s employees, relatives and friends and were not hurricane evacuees

Yeh pled guilty in 2007 and admitted he submitted a false claim to FEMA for Room 701 at the Flagship from Oct. 28 through Nov. 11, 2005. Based on that claim, FEMA paid the hotel $1,189.

The investigation started when agents got a tip saying the hotel records showed it as full when, in fact, a significant number of rooms were unoccupied. Federal agents say they interviewed a man whose name was listed on Yeh’s claims as the guest, but the man (a contractor who submitted bids in 2004 and 2005 for remodeling jobs at the Flagship and another hotel Yeh is associated with) said he didn’t have a room at the Flagship then.

As part of the alleged scheme, Yeh took over the job of billing the federal lodging programs online after Hurricane Rita, filing false claims for reimbursement for rooms in the names of hotel employees who had stayed at the Flagship free as part of their employment arrangement; rooms in the name of supposed hurricane evacuees on dates when the rooms were occupied by paying hotel guests with different names; rooms occupied by friends, relatives, and employees of his wife’s business, who were recruited to stay at the hotel, but were not evacuees; rooms in the names of supposed hurricane evacuees who never had rooms; rooms in the name of supposed hurricane evacuees on dates when those rooms were unoccupied; and for multiple rooms in the names of a single guest when, in fact, the guest didn’t occupy as many rooms.

Yeh has been free on bond and a date hasn’t yet been set for him to report to prison.

You have to wonder how many other hotels took advantage of the system back then. And that corruption is shamefully greater than that done by any Katrina evacuee or undeserving individual.

Anyone suspecting criminal activity involving disaster assistance programs can make an anonymous report by calling the toll-free Hurricane Relief Fraud Hotline, 1-866-720-5721 or 1-800-CALL-FBI, 24 hours a day, seven days a week until further notice.

Information can also be emailed to the inspector general at dhsoighotline@dhs.gov or sent by snail mail, with as many details as possible, to:
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC. 20528
Attn: Office of Inspector General, Hotline

Many Louisiana Hurricane Gustav evacuees who ventured north this week to escape the wrath of whatever was coming were out of luck and in harm’s way, thanks to practices of hotel chains that, for whatever reasons, are putting them out on the street. They are finding their cash money is no good.

Whether for lack of preparation or lack of planning, many evacuees seeking shelter from the storm are running into a familiar echo among hoteliers in north Louisiana, particularly the Alexandria area, where stores were closing and gas was in short supply. Those who were smart enough to anticipate where the safest part of the state would be may have made hotel reservations when the storm was still around Haiti or Cuba.

Now that it’s here, those who evacuated as late as Friday or Saturday and tried to get a room ran into the old “no room at the inn” – “no vacancy” – signs.

Then, to add to the hurt, Alexandria’s convention center, used as a Red Cross shelter after Hurricane Katrina, was set up only for special needs evacuees. And the Rapides Coliseum, a blighted, old, circa 1960’s drafty, leaky, stadium dump of a Red Cross shelter, had “no new registrations” signs posted as early as the Saturday before Gustav made landfall in Louisiana.

It was only housing evacuees bussed in from several places around the state. Also, local shelters (schools, etc.) were only accepting local residents, said one evacuee who was turned down.

That left Monroe and Shreveport as the only two closest other cities with Red Cross shelters for evacuees, according to the state’s emergency info operators.

At hotels like Super 8, Ramada Inn, and others in Alexandria, those who got rooms were being told they had to leave “due to reservations”.

Now, who would get on highways and evacuate AFTER a hurricane heads their way? And the hotels wouldn’t accept money from guests already in rooms, so guests could not pay in advance for one day or one week and were forced to checkout. Most, if not all evacuees, had no relatives or friends in the area.

A call to FEMA got the response of “Louisiana hasn’t been declared a disaster yet”, so FEMA wouldn’t help. Also, FEMA was giving the city of New Orleans’ 311 info number or the state’s 211 or the Red Cross as the only further assistance, even for those outside the city of New Orleans.

Take the bus, go by car, but boating is not advised, as Katrina survivors on the Gulf Coast start leaving home for parts unknown. Here we go again. Paying the cost to live in America’s most unique city or the beautiful Gulf Coast.

Whatever the case, most of us love where we live, and don’t really want to live anywhere else. And we pay the price, in losses from hurricanes – utterly destructive forces of nature that threaten all coasts of this country, that are called cyclones when on the west coast.

Other kinds disasters, like wildfires, tidal waves, or landslides, can strike anywhere, and you can’t always predict them, as with hurricanes, so at least we have warning systems in place, to give us time to think.

And thinking ahead is a key to avoiding a disaster. We’ve got to think of what we’ll do in case of a hurricane BEFORE it hits. So – don’t even THINK about hunkering down and going without power or water for at least a few days. The one thing you don’t need to think about is whether or not to evacuate when advised to do so.

With law enforcement in place to prevent looting in New Orleans and surrounding areas, the shameful stuff we saw after Hurricane Katrina won’t be seen this time. Besides, anyone found outside in these areas will be arrested, reportedly to be taken straight to the infamous Angola State Prison for booking. And Hurricane Gustav looks like it’s gonna be such a threat that it’s not worth taking a chance for anybody except first responders to stay behind…don’t even THINK about it!

As the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, State of Mississippi, and the rest of the Gulf Coast – still already ravaged by Hurricane Katrina three years ago – prepares to defy yet another tempest of the sea called Gustav, FEMA has issued no public media statements regarding the impending threat.

Is this just a repeat performance or a deliberate, calculated step in introducing the Gulf Coast to the new “FEMA of 2008?”

I checked out the old Craiglist Katrina board, and I am pissed off. It seems some peeps still think ALL of us Katrina people got these big checks for $5000 or 2000 or whatever. Not true! And that’s jus ONE of the stupid things people think about us. Seems like we are outkasts in some places. Not ALL Katrina survivers are moochers and thugs!

The folks at CNN who uncovered $85 million in unused Hurricane Katrina goods a few weeks ago have found yet another bone for Hurricane Katrina survivors to pick at.

The CNN investigation found that Mississippi, the state hardest-hit by Katrina’s wind and storm surge, was one of 16 states that had reportedly received surplus supplies meant for Katrina victims, but not followed through in distributing the goods to the intended recipients.

According to the news network, coffee makers, cleaning supplies, dishes, linens, clothes, and shoes all ended up with Mississippi state agencies, prisons, and schools.

Also, CNN reports, a spokesperson for a state agency that handled the surplus said, “There may be a need, but we were not notified that there was a great need for this particular property.” (GASP!)

Other media reports state that non-profit organizations must qualify through Mississippi’s Department of Finance to be allowed to buy the surplus supplies and for more info, to contact that department at (601) 939-2050.

I am a Katrina survivor and I have been diplaced here in Cleveland,Oh.I here very little about the efforts about the road home program to get back to New Orleans and I feel as though I am being left out of all that is intitled to me. I have been here in Cleveland, Ohio for 2 and a half years now and the job situation absolutley sucks to the core. The best that I can do here as far as a job here is to work through a temp service and more times than usual I do good to get sent out 2 days a week if that often. At least in the Big Easy there is plenty of work even if I have stay in a boarding house until I could find a place there, but I would still have to maintain what I have here at the same time here. Im at my breaking point and we all got ripped off big time by our government in more ways than one. Something has to give becuse something sure aint right

Not only is FEMA getting out of the ice-supply business after a disaster, but seems to be trying to distance itself from the notion of the agency as a temporary housing solution.

FEMA banned further use of its poison-laced travel trailers as an option for temporary housing in October 2007, because of the formaldehyde.

But last week the agency released its 2008 disaster plan, with revised guidelines for use of its trailers in “unusual and extraordinary disaster conditions”, and furthermore placing the burden of choosing the temporary housing squarely upon the shoulders of the state in which a disaster happens.

In releasing its disaster plan the agency stated that, as of May 29, 2008, there were 7,500 unused temporary housing units in its inventory, with only 889 units ready for use in response to disasters.

Suppose a major, destructive hurricane was headed for your home and you and your family had to evacuate NOW?

As the price of a gallon of regular gas has soared close to the dreaded $4.00 per gallon national average, do you have the money and could you afford to fill up your gas tank TODAY?
Please take a quick survey! Look for the results to be published here soon!

FOUND! In New Orleans, a group of volunteers from actor-turned-activist Sean Pitt’s personal crusade to save the Earth – the “Dirty Hands Caravan” – descended on the city during the last weekend of Jazz Fest. Several members who had traveled all the way from a California desert alternative music festival to K-Ville stayed in K-Ville.

KatrinaConnection.com has received thousands of visits, page views, and many thousands of hits from folks all over the world looking for updates (thanks). And (whew!) I tried hard to find out where the Caravan had landed.

With no major local media focused on them this group of twelve quietly decided to stay and help rebuild in the Central City area of New Orleans, a particularly damaged, neglected, high-crime section of this flood-ravaged town.

Through some miracle of divine intervention, the group appears to be based at my church where I had not been inside since LAST Sunday (the day the group was originally scheduled to get to New Orleans). And I have the pleasure of personally meeting the Dirty Hands I’ve been trying to find since last week!

So, anyone loooking for “in yo’ face” Dirty Hands this week can get an update right here on the KC blog, and I know they’re doing some good things here in K-Ville! Can’t wait to tell you about ‘em. Check back soon!

WOW! God is SO cool!