Submitted by Merry Grant, Sep 3, 2007 23:50

Please read the article below my comments.

We did not get all of the money you had written about. Yet we had the most damage. Our interstructure is gone, the people who got hurt the most (outside of those who lost their life in their attics, being in the horrific heat with no food or water for days on end, all those who drown trying to find higher spots. Bodies, lots of them floating all over. I know someone who stayed and he said it was unreal. All the bodies in the water. This was in Midcity. I know of people stuck on the expressway for 10 days, no one came to their aid. It was an owner to a business who got them off. He brought his small boat and ferried a few at a time. The water was contaminated. They survived only because some people could swim and they went and stole food and liquids, beer, soft drinks and anything that was consumable.

I cannot believe I almost did not leave. I had watched the storm on the computer and the Weather Bureau had it going to Mobile and it kept inching over. It was not a catagory 5, it was small at the time. It was not until Saturday night did I find out it was coming this way and it was a 5. After spending 23 hours on the road trying to get to Houston fromHurricane Ivan, I did not want to go. I left my 20 year old cat here because he was not a happy camper nor a very good traveler, I figured I was on high ground and the building I am in is strong and he would be ok for a few days (I lost my cat because we could not get back into the city). New Orleans survived the hurricane, but not the work of the Army Corp of Engineers.. You need to get it right. Government was the cause of this disaster. It totally destroyed the interstructure. Even now people who have flooded homes have not come back. We have had a lot of sucides also.

We have a saying here now, "If your mama didn't die on the attic floor you, ____________" I feel that way also.

I left with 2 outfits, expresso machine and my George Foreman Grill.

I consider myself lucky.

Merry Grant

BATON ROUGE - Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco issued the following statement today after learning of Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo's (R-Littleton) call for a moratorium on Katrina spending. Citing a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, Tancredo characterized federal recovery aid as "runaway government spending."

"Perhaps Rep. Tancredo should read the entire report to which he refers. The GAO report cites the federal government as the source of waste, not those at the state and local level who continue working around the clock to rebuild their communities. He should also know the facts behind the $114 billion figure that is so easily touted as the monetary cure-all for the largest disaster in our nation's history. Federal investments in the Gulf Coast's recovery have been generous and historic. However, appropriations still have not come close to the magnitude of our damages or to the commitment President Bush pledged in Jackson Square shortly after Katrina.

"The federal government suggests it has allocated more than $114 billion to the Gulf Coast recovery - but they often fail to mention this $114 billion was distributed among five states - Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Florida - in the aftermath of three disasters, including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Of this, it is estimated that federal commitments to Louisiana are roughly $60 billion. A substantial portion of this assistance was directed to emergency assistance and meeting short-term needs arising from the hurricanes, such as relocation assistance, emergency housing, immediate levee repair, and debris removal efforts, leaving less than $26 billion for actual 'bricks and sticks' rebuilding of permanent infrastructure. Of this, we have forced enough federally-required paperwork through the eye of the needle to get nearly $7 billion spent on permanent construction projects, including more than $3 billion that has been paid directly to Louisiana home! owners.

"To characterize our ongoing recovery challenges as 'runaway government spending' is an insult to Americans in need. Let me remind him and others in Congress that Louisiana has contributed nearly $5 billion of our own resources toward this historic recovery effort. We have painstaking accountability measures in place to ensure every dollar is appropriately spent on recovery. We have undergone numerous audits, and we stand tall in the way Louisiana has honestly disbursed its federal dollars. I share Rep. Tancredo's concern for transparency and accountability, and I urge him to stand with us as we face this long-term recovery, just as we would stand with Colorado should residents there suffer a major disaster. Join us in demanding more efficient use of recovery aid by reforming the Stafford Act, cutting the reams of red tape that are hampering our progress."

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