Miss. Officials Update Katrina Recovery

December 16, 2005

Federal and state disaster officials provided the following summary of the ongoing assistance effort in Mississippi as of close of business Dec. 14, 2005:

* Individuals and Households program total payments disbursed: $945,450,645.
* Public Assistance obligated funds currently total $605,560,333.
* The U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster Assistance Program has approved 6,400 home loans, 650 business loans and 173 economic injury loans, totaling $529,444,000.
* The cruise ship shelter is currently docked in Pascagoula and has 1,076 displaced persons and 32 FEMA staff on-board.
* 349 portable classrooms and 183 temporary offices have been provided to hurricane damaged counties by FEMA and installed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
* More than 23 million cubic yards of debris has been removed from public and private property by USACE, local governments and contractors.
* FEMA assigned the USACE to install 49,760 temporary roofs through Operation Blue Roof.
* There are seven open shelters (including the cruise ship shelter) housing 1,104 individuals.
* 378,000 housing inspections have been completed.
* To date, the four counties with the most registrations for Individual Assistance are: Forrest, Harrison, Hinds and Jackson. The total number of registrations for all four counties is 237,321.
* The total number of travel trailers currently occupied is 26,995. There are 292 mobile homes occupied. Approximate number of people occupying temporary housing: 73,675.
* The four counties with the most travel trailers placed are: Hancock, Harrison, Jackson and Pearl River.

Federal and state disaster recovery officials urge those who have not done so to apply as soon as possible by calling the toll-free application number at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or (TTY) 1-800-462-7585 for speech- or hearing-impaired. Individuals may also register for disaster assistance online at www.fema.gov. The deadline for new applications for Individual Assistance is Jan. 11, 2006.

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