[StBernard] The Road Home Musings

[Westley Annis]

Wes,
 
   The argument is simple, and should be made...the damage from Murphy,
while storm related, only happened as a result of Murphy's negligence in not
filling the tank. Had they filled the tank, it would not have floated- i.e.
would not have busted as a result of the storm. It would still be where it
was AND many more people would have less headaches and Sydney Torres would
be a little poorer as a result. This point has to be argued more thoroughly
with the LRA
     Just a note to anyone below Paris Rd. My boyfriend at arbitration
argued successfully (thanks to me) for more than the original 14 days of ALE
that most insurance companies gave. The first 14 days, we were forced out by
Parish officials (katrina), the second 14 days, we were forbidden to come
home because the EPA and DEQ had to see how extensive the oil spill was,
then with Rita we were kicked out again by the Governor. If you have to go
to arbitration, go for every penny including 3 separate incidents of Civil
Mandatory evacuations.

________________________________

By all accounts, the funding for the Road Home program is just about in the
bag.  A procedure vote in each chamber of Congress and the President's
signature is all the funding is waiting on and it should be done by next
week.

The LRA has sent out a press release stating they have 85,000 registered,
but think there is another 38,000 home owners that have not registered yet,
to bring the total to 123,000.

Quick math, if everyone got the max of $150,000, you have a total of $18.4
billion if everyone signed up or $12.8 billion if we stay with 85,000
people.  The total funding for the program is $12.4 billion and you have to
deduct administrative costs and funding for businesses and landlords.

As a comparison to the Mississippi program, Louisiana is being a little more
generous.  In Mississippi, the house had to be your primary residence on the
day of the storm, you had to carry homeowners insurance, and you had to be
outside of the flood plain (no A or V zones).

Mississippi has no buy-out program.  The grants are capped at $150,000 or
the amount of homeowners insurance coverage you had, which ever is less.

I don't think they have funding yet, but Mississippi is looking to expand
their program to those who were in the flood plain but didn't have flood
insurance based on 2006 income levels.

I'm saying all of this just so that we all know what Mississippi is doing
compared to Louisiana.  In case anyone is wondering, Mississippi is also
deducting insurance and FEMA funds.

Now, let's talk about how St. Bernard residents will get pinched by the
Federal government, yet again.  There is talk that anyone who has received
monies from Murphy Oil in relation to the oil spill will have to deduct
their settlement from the amount the LRA would offer.  This is still up in
the air, and has not been decided yet.

On WWL, Garland Robinette has stated that Walter Leger has the LRA legal
team looking into the matter.

Just for the record, here is the troublesome paragraph from the Stafford
Act:

§ 5155. DUPLICATION OF BENEFITS {Sec. 312} General prohibition

The President, in consultation with the head of each Federal agency
administering any program providing financial assistance to persons,
business concerns, or other entities suffering losses as a result of a major
disaster or emergency, shall assure that no such person, business concern,
or other entity will receive such assistance with respect to any part of
such loss as to which he has received financial assistance under any other
program or from insurance or any other source.

The question will become, is the oil spill part of the storm damage or is it
a separate incident?  I don't know about you, but I just have a sneaky
feeling that some damn Yankee bureaucrat is going to say it was storm damage
while he takes home the personal information of 123,000 Louisiana residents
so his crack supplier can steal it from him.  The bureaucrat gets another
snort, no one will find out the info has been stolen for two years, he'll
get transferred to a different position, and we will still be staring at the
empty shells we used to call home.

Someone needs to plug these coordinates into one of those 500 pound bombs
that took out al-Zarqawi - N 38 ° 53' 9.7" ° - W 77 ° 1' 7.5" °.
http://tinyurl.com/fe4q3

Totally disgusted,
Westley