[StBernard] Corps extends debris pickup in Hancock county MS

[Westley Annis]

FEMA extends cleanup deadline
 
*	Agency delays deadline 3 months; county will pay 10 percent of cost
after July 1
*	
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been given a three-month extension to
remove debris in hurricane-ravaged Hancock County.
 
The corps told local officials earlier this month they would be leaving on
June 30 even if the work was incomplete.
 
The governor's office and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency asked
for an extension from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is
directing the corps' debris removal work.
 
Local officials were critical of the corps' plan to leave, but welcomed
Tuesday's news that the corps would finish the work.
 
"They done got the gravy, now make them stay to pick up the crumbs," said
Hancock County Supervisor Jay Cuevas.
 
Local and state governments will have to start picking up 10 percent of the
cost after July 1. Thus far, the federal government has paid for all debris
removal costs.
"We're going to have to pay something," Cuevas said. "Hopefully, it won't be
too traumatic."
 
Hancock County Supervisor Lisa Cowand said the board was told that if it
signed a contract with the corps, that the corps would stay until the work
was completed.
She's happy the federal government will be living up to their word.
 
The county needs the remaining debris - which she estimated was on about
3,000 parcels of land - cleared as soon as possible so the area can fully
recover.
"We've got to get this cleaned up so we can stimulate our economy," Cowand
said. "Until we get this cleaned up, we won't start making strides."
 
Rhonda Thigpen of Bay St. Louis hopes FEMA's extension will lead to some
generosity for her family.
 
Thigpen said most of her house has been stripped from its foundation, but
she still needs someone to come tear up her concrete slab and help clear the
smaller debris littering her yard.
 
She said her mother and sister have dead trees on their property that have
been denied as eligible for removal by FEMA because they are not leaning at
a sharp enough angle.
 
"They're dead. They're going to come down in a storm," Thigpen said.
 
Michael Logue, a spokesman for the corps, said the agency has picked up more
than 43 million cubic yards of debris and has about 250,000 left.
 
There are also about 5,000 to 6,000 pine trees that need to be removed.
But the remaining debris will be complicated by the right-of-entry process,
where homeowners give permission to come on their property and remove
debris, Cuevas said.
 
Such work must be approved by FEMA.
 
Logue suggested some right-of-entry requests may be re-examined now that the
corps is going to stay.
 
"We're in the process of looking at what we have down-range in terms of
corps personnel and facilities," Logue said. "We've just gotten the new
mission. We'll be spending this week looking at what the requirements are,
what we need to do to fulfill it."
 
Gov. Haley Barbour was upbeat.
 
"I am confident this extension will allow time for the difficult job of
debris removal to be finished," Barbour said.