Louisiana Recovery News 10.16.06 To navigate this document, please open your bookmarks to the left. NATIONAL NEWS 1. Houston Chronicle, Katrina’s Aftermath: FEMA extends housing benefits for some 15,000 evacuee families; A workshop today will provide simplified forms and other aid, Mike Snyder, October 13, 2006 2. Chicago Tribune, No hiding from this meltdown, William Hageman, October 15, 2006 3. Chicago Tribune, Storm tours: A feeling for New Orleans; A strange curiosity draws visitors to the other side of a good-times city, Howard Shapiro, October 15, 2006 LOCAL NEWS 1. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Planning meetings objectives questioned; Some say challenges differ by neighborhood, Michelle Krupa, October 15, 2006 2. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Local United Way focuses on post-Katrina recovery; It's supporting efforts of grass-roots groups, Valerie Faciane, October 16, 2006 3. The Louisiana Weekly, Seniors exempt from Road Home penalties, October 16, 2006 4. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Rising Rent, Jeffrey Meitrodt, October 15, 2006 5. New Orleans CityBusiness, Port of N.O. reduces loss claim by $35M, October 16, 2006 6. New Orleans CityBusiness, Recovery czar possibly to be considered by City Council, Deon Roberts, October 16, 2006 7. Associated Press Newswires, Cruise ships return to New Orleans; Norwegian Sun makes first regularly scheduled stop since Hurricane Katrina, Janet McConnaughey, October 15, 2006 8. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Foreigners tapped to fill nursing gap; Post-storm conditions hurt recruiting in U.S., Kate Moran, October 15, 2006 9. Bayou Buzz, Louisiana Governor Blanco, Insurance Commissioner Homeowner’s Relief, October 13, 2006 10. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Sewage may be coast's savior ; N.O., St. Bernard are pursuing project, Matthew Brown, October 16, 2006 11. Associated Press Newswires, Fans of Eagles & Saints team up to clean N.O. neighborhood, October 14, 2006 12. New Orleans Times-Picayune, To desert or protect? CNN reporter embedded with NOPD after Katrina saw the dilemma up close, Dave Walker, October 14, 2006 13. New Orleans Times-Picayune, New Orleans Film Festival: A Katrina survivor, Michael H. Kleinschrodt, October 13, 2006 OP-EDS/EDITORIALS 1. The Baton Rouge Advocate, LTE: Hate for Louisiana Recovery Authority, October 14, 2006 2. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Editorial: Put Entergy ratepayers first, October 14, 2006 3. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Editorial: A fresh start, October 16, 2006 4. The Baton Rouge Advocate, Editorial: Dueling proposals on insurance relief, October 15, 2006 5. The Daily Advertiser, Editorial: Where's the health-care money?, October 13, 2006 6. The Daily Advertiser, Editorial: Insurance crisis has roots in past, October 16, 2006 7. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Editorial: Where's the chemo for crime?, October 15, 2006 NATIONAL NEWS Katrina’s Aftermath: FEMA extends housing benefits for some 15,000 evacuee families; A workshop today will provide simplified forms and other aid Houston Chronicle October 13, 2006 By Mike Snyder About 15,000 hurricane evacuee families threatened with potential homelessness in Houston will continue to receive federal housing assistance through February, officials said Thursday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's decision to lift an Oct. 31 deadline for evacuees to "recertify" their eligibility averts what could have been the worst crisis since evacuees began streaming into Houston more than a year ago, advocates said. "This is a huge victory for the evacuees," said Bob Fleming, who oversees Catholic Charities' assistance program for people displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Most of the estimated 21,000 Houston households still receiving FEMA housing assistance had not submitted the required forms to prove they remain eligible, including rent receipts and other documents that many evacuees had difficulty finding, city and FEMA officials said. Among those who had submitted documents, few had been approved and many had been returned for more information. FEMA is now asking evacuees to complete a simple, one-page form with basic identifying information, current income, job-search information and a declaration that the evacuee still needs rental assistance. Spokesman Don Jacks said FEMA expects all evacuee households to submit the form, but failure to do so would not result in a loss of assistance. Workshops Thursday and today at the George R. Brown Convention Center initially focused on recertification but shifted to helping people find jobs and providing other services. Sandra Henry, 54, and her sister, Patricia Crumedy, 53, came to Thursday's workshop with a case full of documents they thought they would need to obtain recertification. They quickly filled out the simplified form and said they were grateful for FEMA's decision. "That was a blessing," Henry said. "Houston has just been a blessing for us." Crumedy wept as she described the stress brought on by uncertainty about a place to live and the difficulty in making arrangements to move back to New Orleans, where her home was destroyed by Katrina. She said she had struggled for years to save money for a home of her own. "To finally get something and see it washed away - it's depressing," Crumedy said. Jacks said FEMA decided to drop the deadline and simplify recertification because its previous efforts to obtain the necessary documents from evacuees had not been successful. Relieved of the anxiety of worrying about keeping a roof over their heads, the evacuees can use the next five months to find jobs and otherwise stabilize their lives, Fleming said. No hiding from this meltdown Chicago Tribune October 15, 2006 By William Hageman Even people he never met recognized that Chris Rose was in trouble. They read what Rose, a columnist for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, was writing in the aftermath Hurricane Katrina. And these strangers e-mailed him. "They could tell just from reading my stories that I was in a world of hurt," Rose said. "And I had failed to recognize that. I thought I was just depressed in a non-clinical sense." But it was a lot more than that. Months of living in the post-Katrina horrors of New Orleans had had a psychological effect. He finally got help at the urging of his family, editor and friends. And those strangers. "I had been of the culture that thought that antidepressant medication worked for desperate housewives and that psychiatry was for other people. I never bought into the notion that there were physiological or biological or biochemical agents at work to create emotional despair. But I'm here to tell you that there's a pill . "I hate to be a drug pusher, but when I bottomed out this summer I was in the ultimate despair, willing to walk away from my marriage, willing to pretty much let everything go. But I sought professional help. I was put on a prescription. And 18 hours later the whole freakin' world turned upside down, and I was thinking, what was I putting this off for?" Rose is in the process of writing his story--"my fall into the rabbit hole and my crawling back out," he calls it--that will eventually appear in the Times-Picayune. He also is coming to Chicago to promote his book "1 Dead in Attic," a collection of columns he wrote after Katrina struck. Proceeds are being shared with the Tipitina Foundation and to ARTDOCS, groups helping artists recover from Katrina. He and wife Kelly "thought we'd raise a thousand dollars for the Tipitina Foundation, a thousand dollars for ARTDOCS, and we'd have enough money to buy a new refrigerator. Well, 65,000 books later we've cut checks for $25,000 to those organizations and have gotten ourselves a new refrigerator and a new stove." Rose's reading is Oct. 22 at Kraft Lieberman Gallery in Chicago. There also will be a slide show of Katrina photos and refreshments donated by Heaven on Seven. "Like anything else with New Orleans, you know, we're not just gonna sit and sign books and collect money," Rose said. "We're gonna eat, we're gonna drink, I'm going to get up and talk, make people cry a little, make people laugh a little. And hopefully leave a couple hundred books behind in Chicago that'll help tell our story. Obviously there's still a great deal of misunderstanding what happened here. The answers aren't simple." Storm tours: A feeling for New Orleans; A strange curiosity draws visitors to the other side of a good-times city Chicago Tribune October 15, 2006 By Howard Shapiro NEW ORLEANS - Here's the strangest thing: The New Orleans that people always came here to visit is still here, either virtually untouched or already renewed from relatively minor damage. I had a good time in New Orleans over four days. I ate well. I heard fabulous music. I grumbled to myself about the ridiculous August heat and humidity but bopped around town nevertheless. Other tourists appeared to do the same, but not many. On a normal summer pre-Katrina day, the city was never jammed because it's low season in hot weather; nowadays, the season is lower than ever. Still, the place is irresistible, heat or not. I took a fascinating Gray Line walking tour of the elegant Garden District with six other visitors, and we ooohed at its graceful homes, which had mostly suffered minor damage and have been repaired. I took a French Quarter history and architecture tour--the Quarter holds the city's essential history, having flown under French, Spanish, Confederate and United States flags--and it was a freebie. The Quarter has a National Historical Park, the tiny Jean Lafitte park, and one of its rangers, Danny Forbis, led 15 of us around.