Last week Iwrote about the Bush administration’s throwing a monkey wrench in Louisiana’s plan to rebuild Charity Hospital. Well Gov Blanco now has a plan to work around the feds on this and help out the Road Home program. From the Times Picayune… Gov. Kathleen Blanco came up with a plan Sunday to help patch the Road Home shortfall and simultaneously bypass her dispute with Washington conservatives over a proposed Charity Hospital in New Orleans. The governor will rely solely on state money to build the medical facility, then shift federal recovery dollars allocated to the hospital to fill in … Continue reading Workaround

From the Times Picayune we learn that the Bush administration has made it clear they do not support Louisiana’s plan to build a new health care facility to replace Charity Hospital. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson wrote a laundry list letter of his problems with the plan. In it he even claimed the state had “inflated” local demand for hospital beds. Of course the Bush administration had been pushing the state to implement the Bush administration’s new plan of health care for the poor—government subsidized private health insurance rather than the Charity Hospital system. There’s some irony. In the rest of … Continue reading For Bush… New Orleans’ recovery is local…until it’s not

(photo: scout) For background…there has been some battling on this. Dr. Kevin Stephens the director of the New Orleans Health Department is the lead author of the study reported on below. Stephens had testified before Congress in March on his findings. State epidemiologist Raoult Ratard challenged those findings with the May release of “a study showing that the death rate has not drastically escalated.” Now Dr. Stephens has published his study in the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. From USA Today… Hurricane Katrina’s tragic aftermath lingered for at least a year after the storm abated, boosting New Orleans’ … Continue reading Study: New Orleans Deaths Up 47%

This strikes me as such… There were no takers for a piano signed by Fats Domino in an auction to raise money for the rebuilding of New Orleans. Not one offer. Man. Christ. {{hangs head}} Here is the great Fats Domino singing “Ain’t that a Shame” Continue reading Emblematic of it all

From the NYT… After nearly two years of work, the Army Corps of Engineers disclosed for the first time today which New Orleans neighborhoods and blocks were the most vulnerable to flooding and which were the best protected. The report shows that large swaths of the city are still likely to be flooded in a major storm. If a 100-year storm were to hit today, for example, parts of the Gentilly and Lakeview neighborhoods, in the northern part of the city, would probably still take on at least 8 feet of water. But the report shows that the vulnerable areas … Continue reading Army Corps of Engineers Sort of Releases Report

It’s almost as if, despite his touted many visits to the city, everything he knows about New Orleans he learned from Anderson Cooper. Continue reading Ouch

FEMA’s authorized overbilling by insurance companies is something I have seen next to nothing about in the press and media. Yet when FEMA announced it is trying to reclaim $485 million that was overpaid to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita victims it is news. And just what does FEMA’s offensive look like for hurricane victims? This from Oyster… Occasionally I help out one of my tenants with his FEMA rental assistance forms (he’s illiterate). The other day, I had to tell him that the most recent FEMA letter he received stated that he must give back $10k in assistance he received … Continue reading FEMA Offensive

Sheesh! Go read the wonderful Dangerblond hereand here on the freaking inane discovery questions in Katrina insurance cases. Continue reading Just hand me the battery cables and I’ll torture myself OK?

Last week during a committee oversight hearing Rep Gene Taylor (D-MS) revealed a meeting that occured on September 7th 2005 where apparently David Maurstad, the director of the National Flood Insurance Program, met with approximately 300 representatives of the insurance industry. In that meeting Maurstad “outlined the National Flood Insurance Program’s attitude towards the whole wind vs. water” issue of Katrina claims. (partial transcript & video here) There are now allegations that this set in motion the insurance companies overbilling of the NFIP while minimizing their own costs–in other words taxpayers subsidized the insurance companies’ hurricane claims. It is interesting … Continue reading McClellan had been asked if feds were working with insurance industry on flood claims

Oyster informs us that Sarah Ferguson the Duchess of York was in New Orleans to raise money for local Ronald McDonald charities. According to the Times Picayune Fergie “vowed to call Gov. Kathleen Blanco to voice her concerns about the sluggish pace of Road Home grants.” Regarding this Oyster writes… …but I do know that she called Blanco’s Road Home program and they didn’t believe it was really Fergie and hung up on her. OK I may be critical of the Road Home program but on this one I am sympathetic because I have been there…embarrassingly so. Back in ’04, … Continue reading Oh yeah right I bet you are!

Well well look at what that controversial FEMA memo to insurance companies on expediting Katrina insurance claims said… “FEMA will not seek reimbursement from the company when a subsequent review identifies overpayments resulting from the company’s proper use of FEMA depth data and a reasonable method of developing square foot value in concluding claims.” As the Times Picayune points out the memo says “when” not “if.” As Bob Hunter director of the insurance program at the Consumer Federation of America said…”That’s a blank check, isn’t it?”  It appears the insurance companies developed the procedures outlined in the memo… Until now, … Continue reading FEMA memo may have authorized insurance overbilling

OK this preliminary GAO report’s findings are really quite astounding. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) which is administered by FEMA does not collect the data necessary to know if the $16.2 Billion it paid out for flood claims related to Hurricanes Rita and Katrina is what it was obligated to pay. Some background info to keep in mind. Homeowners obtain flood insurance through the NFIP because private insurers rarely cover it. But private insurers sell and service the flood insurance policies for the NFIP. Those insurers known as WYOs (Write Your Own) keep a portion of the premiuim for … Continue reading Scout’s Obsession with the GAO: Feds don’t know what they’re paying for

Last month Iposted on alleged fraud by insurance companies in passing the cost of claims onto the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). That post contained info on an NFIP memo instructing companies on the flood vs wind issue, specifically to go ahead and pay for flood damage. Experts believe it opened the door to the alleged fraud by sending the message that the federal treasury was the companies’s “cookie jar.” Now Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS) has asked a joint oversight subcommitte investigating NFIP and issues exposed by the 2005 hurricanes to “subpoena records of a September 7, 2005 meeting between … Continue reading Taylor calls for subpoenas related to insurance companies’ Katrina fraud

Go to Oyster’s place This is life in New Orleans. UPDATE:Click comments below and read lb0313’s about Robin Malta (mentioned in Oyster’s post) who was found murdered in his Marigny home. Continue reading In NOLA

…Ashley’s idea that is Continue reading I like it…

Anderson Cooper was in New Orleans last night as part of CNN’s “Keeping them Honest.” They did pieces on the levees and pumps, the apparent suicide of one of the NOPD officers involved in a widely publicized post-K police brutality case, the 100 unclaimed remains of Katrina victims still waiting in a NOLA warehouse for burial, crime in NOLA and a piece on FEMA trailers returned to that agency, vandalized and “trashed.” I’ve seen the FEMA trailer story repeated twice this morning. Now I do commend Cooper and CNN for returning to NOLA. So it is hard to be critical. … Continue reading Where is the perspective?