Miss. Residents Move Forward in Recovery from Hurricane Katrina

Federal and state disaster officials in Mississippi provided the following summary of the ongoing assistance effort as of close of business Feb. 1, 2006.

* Individuals and Households Program total payments disbursed: $1,064,040,211 .
* Public Assistance obligated funds currently total $745,283,422 .
* The U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster Assistance Program has approved 15,406 home loans, 2,594 business loans and 248 economic injury loans, totaling $1,352,748,200.
* The cruise ship shelter is currently docked in Pascagoula and has 111 displaced households plus FEMA staff onboard.
* 493 portable classrooms and 231 temporary offices have been provided to hurricane damaged counties by FEMA and installed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
* More than 30.9 million cubic yards of debris have been removed from public and private property by USACE, local governments and contractors.
* 404,313 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 238,715. Total state registrations are at 514,913.
* The total number of travel trailers currently occupied is 34,336. There are 472 mobile homes occupied. Approximate number of people occupying temporary housing: 93,982. There are approximately 1,126 people occupying 417 temporary housing units that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
* 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 for disaster assistance 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 online at www.fema.gov. The deadline for applications for Individual Assistance is March 11, 2006.