Beyond Katrina; 108

Beyond Katrina is made possible by a grant from Chevron. Chevron is proud to be the sole underwriter of this ongoing series about the determination of our friends and neighbors. Chevron and its employees are partnering to rebuild Mississippi. Hi Ronnie I can never tell do we get beyond Katrina. We brought our mobile production unit here to the Mississippi coast Coliseum to look for answers at the governor's recovery Expo. We've seen some interesting ideas and products that just might help with the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. And you have made some of the latest affordable homes available for families starting from scratch. We'll talk to Governor Haley Barbour next on this special edition of Beyond Katrina. This is.

Remarkable. From all the work went into the thing that makes it work is all of these vendors want to come in. Cause they know the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. When you drive up and down Highway 90 like I've been doing for the last I and you have to see a lot of slabs out there but. You think. They. Were cleaned. We're about 90 percent of the debris has been claimed. Money is starting to flow. We've received close to 15 billion dollars of insurance payments on SBA loans in just you know a few days to stay at home mom grant program money is starting to flow and the fact of it three people come here and say I got my check in the last couple days and we hope almost all that money will be put out during the month of August is always like everything else it goes a little slower than I want but I think Barack September we will have put out a billion and a half or so that money so people don't have money in her hands they're going to be ready to go forward and living

space right now is the time. To really put pedal to the metal and it's going to be homeowners. But it's also as you can see big employers like the casinos the people are small business people are coming back and winning it all that you never forget the end of the private sector for spring break and it's going to be little people. That's right. The homes we have to reveal 70000 homes I was almost. Twenty eight hundred homes in the three. When you're 28 we get real said Messiah. But I am convinced that we can get it done in. Five or six years. That's all the time which is why we're working so hard with the federal government to place the travel trailer is the solution for temporary housing in that temporary right. We also have to get a lot of labor housing built probably in the form of my house and then we need

it for people who are winners before the storm. Jamieson has a very high incidence of home of about 70 after the baby was sitting on was about 10 points over the national average but the homestead is one of the lower levels of homeownership only about 60 percent of people on the coast so there are lottery winners and so we built a multi family or and that sort of stuff for purposes is another. All right. What's the news. Today well there's a lot going on here and there and it's a good crowd and the public is very much not just vendors and builders and developers. But I was able to announce today as well as the opening of the coverage that the U.S. Park has an Urban Development has approved Mississippi's client to use for 10 million dollars of our community will block grant money. To prevent our rate payers from being get here with huge increases in electricity rates or homeowner's insurance rates. I had announced a few weeks ago that I want to take 50 million hours a CBG money and

use it to subsidize homocysteine when insurance rates here in what's called the velocities really have what's called. Wind could. This become a way to use 30 million dollars to subsidize the cost of the wind power to re-assure this year another 20 next year. It is approved there and they have also approved our pay and 360 million dollars for the restoration rebuilding of our electric transmission distribution and generation facilities. Otherwise under Mississippi law that 360 million dollars would automatically get added to our utility rates. So this saves We call it right. Player mitigation means that homeowners won't get hit with an even bigger. Right increase for insurance so they won't get hit with an even bigger rate increase for electricity. I told you I'd spend a couple days driving around down here because I wanted to go places I hadn't been. Before. I was in Pearlington yesterday. It's heartbreaking. For me. To see what you have here

and there's a lot of slabs but. They've still got a long way to go. Their current plan is the schools the farthest most community that was hit by almost live with the storm. And if you come down here you'll see the further east you go. The farther they are in redevelopment in rebuilding and sort of getting things back to normal though there's nowhere all that goes with things back home. But the father east you go the farther north you go. Even in a community like say Gulfport. The further north you go people are much further along. But a lot of Hancock County particular Southern Hancock County is just really starting to finish recovery and it's not very far to rebuild even in the western part of Harrison County like Pass Christian and. You know there are still that these are the places got hit the hardest. And it takes them longer. But. There my tremendous amount of progress tremendous about once a year. Well but it will be. And one of the things that to me has been so spectacular

is the person really. Love these people Jane are living. In. What we would just call. Depravity. I mean and. They don't have that those are the private conditions are limited a little travel trouble. Don't confuse that with a mobile home right. It's just. An add on can do many and well take their living conditions that are just so deprived coming higher. What they're used. And had a tough an eye out and her kids go to school in temporary buildings and they are they're working half of the time to rebuild. This are strong people. But we shouldn't tell my head of this and thank goodness for their perseverance and for a strike their tenacity and I think it comes from the love the color. This what I want but this is a home which we want our kids to get to grow up with a lot of stuff. So they. Put up one man the private guards Thanks

workers used. Because I think it's worth it to be home. You're a little different guy than you were a year ago. I don't there's a question about just what's what we've been through. And. I've has a pretty jobs wife and I'm proud of what I have a chance to do God's great to have never had a job where. And are so many people want. To know. Where it fell I had to leave and want to get something done. People want me. And. That's a BIG for. You know that comfort to drop. By. John tell us magic meter flood program. OK. We brought out our web based products and we have out here and the people are able to come over and plug in their street address of where they live and they can go

right to the our advisory baseline elevation maps and see what elevation they would need to be yet. To. Rebuild. Now you say web based is what is the Web site that people can go to. Go to FEMA's dot gov. And you can work your way through there. And one of them I believe is slash Katrina maps. And you can access it that way. This is a free service that's offered to just. Totally free. You can act like I say you can access it on your own internet site at home and you can come out here as well. I will show you the advisory base flood elevations that you might want to consider building to to be safe in the hundred year event was Katrina the source of this development. No these were developed post-Katrina. And put on the site I believe back in November and December it was developed and we've been continually refining it and upgrading it with a little more bells and whistles and more information on it.

But they had some excellent product today. Thank you. We manufacture homes using structural insulating panels or sips. Sips are an extremely strong and energy efficient building product. Down here in the Gulf Coast. A lot of the. Damaged areas are trying to build a home back. It's much stronger than the previous homes that were here and new technologies here. So new technology this is almost twice as strong as it's. Previous to crane. It's. Highly energy efficient so when you have a four and a half inch Well you're going to get about an hour 16 when you go to a six and a half inch Well you're going to have down are 25. So given the all the characteristics of these homes. This home that we built here in Gulfport as a demonstration project. Has a hundred forty mile an hour wind load characteristic to it. By the way we've engineered it way we've put it together.

We built our home out of the four panels with floors walls and roof everything structural insulated panels. So that. We donated to a family down here that literally lost their home in the in the hurricane. And now they are unable to move from a trailer that FEMA's provided to them to a much larger better better home so. We're here in the Gulf Coast to provide a better product than what typically has been built. But only with new technology that gives us that capability. So we are. Relocating here in Gulfport also and are permanently here now. And we our panels are manufactured at General panel here in Mississippi built by Mississippians. So the governor likes that quite a bit. And so the the. The product itself is a is a Mississippi manufactured product. It's been quite a year for you in your fourth term in office and then that if they ask you

also you know it's painfully that the. Years up almost three. Where are you in respect to what's happening on the coast I've read that you're telling your council members that you're going to veto any plan to put any casino staff there. Well no we have that discussion going. Well that's gone. That's going good you know what I've been saying all along is that I think within the next 10 years we'll probably have. 18 of 22 casinos and books but those casinos need to be wherewith zone for those missing those now and not rezoned any other properties outside of what we have already zone I think we have enough. Land available. For casino development in the same and have that mass. Critical mass right. Right then he's actually looks a lot of people are concerned that the whole. COAST. Line down there is going to be condominium. You know what I what I hope is that where where the motels and

hotels were destroyed and where they are now that's the cages that they can. Get. Those we're looking at before and that's were they going back to places that's already for commercial hospitality. So places that were zoned would become potential contact rather than. What was known single family residence on West Beach continues to help people feel that there's not many building back right now but there's a lot of reasons for that. But I hope they build residential and that. They. Were here at the one year anniversary of it. Have. You got to think about that every day. Yeah I do I don't sleep. Yeah I wake up seven seven more like real life. Few weeks ago I started sleeping pretty well but just don't get it still dealing with it every single day.

And I guess it will be now for a couple three years. I feel good today. Luckily. A lot of people say you know I don't know. It's not. That I feel good. I think that we have a day we have something open the rest of you to just program this morning a wellness center on this big project for the city so. Please what time. Do you want for four terms now. How do you want to be remembered. How do you how do you want the hot Mr. Holloway to be remembered. You know I just want to think that I did a good job that I love luxury. I love the people. Been Good To Me.

Good luck. Thank you. Mary and you decide the future college. Where did that come from. The idea came from the Mississippi Renewal Forum last fall where the Congress the new urban ism was brought together under the leadership of undress Dwane an architect from Miami who sent out a little e-mail to the team of architects that were designing for the for the Gulf Coast. There are about 10 of us out of the group of 200 that came that were focused on buildings and for the charrette Andras sent an e-mail saying Come up with an alternative to the theme a trailer. And that was where the Katrina cottage was born. My design which was at the time 300 square feet. It was designed to be the rival size of the family trailer to show that in a small space you can actually live very nicely. Since then we've evolved the plans to offer more options we're still offering the 300 square foot plans but we're also offering larger ones that can grow so they can either sit like the 300 square foot as an outbuilding or be a larger first piece of a house which grows into the final house some of them grow to a

thousand or twelve hundred square feet. They can also be clustered in villages so there's a lot of ways that you can use the Katrina cottage and a lot of applications. Hi I'm standing here is Steve and he's an architect and we're standing in it's these just beautiful homes. Steve I want to tell us a little bit about the movement going on here. Well the Saturday after the hurricane undressed one and I were sitting down to try to strategize over what we can do to help to help with the recovery. It became obvious immediately that any single method of house delivery was going to be too little because it's just too big of a of a task ahead of us so we said that what we what we've got to do is to have a system that can either be site built or penalize or modularized or manufactured. It could be all of those things in from from that notion that Katrina cottages were born. Now what you're seeing here isn't exactly the Katrina cottage as yet however the industry is headed in that direction modify the progress that they've made in in the years since the hurricane or less than a

year. It's just utterly striking. In We're in the early phases of actually getting homes that are designed by by famous traditional architects like Eric Moser Bill Allison Lou Oliver people like that to be manufactured by the people that used to simply make trailers now. You talk about a different point when when you take what was originally the trailer manufacturers and they become it's important time real soon. The manufacturers of the designer homes that everybody says I've got to have an Allison or Ramsey or or or or whatever the case may be then it would be kind of the just a total reversal of what the current public perception is of what a trailer manufacturer is. If you know it really doesn't look like anything I've perceived a mobile home or trailer manufactured home to be in my mind I mean this is amazing. When SR What do you see for the future. Well here's the thing that there's there's two things that we're doing. My group the new urban guild is in the process of trying to help shepherd this along by either literally putting the plans of the famous architects in the hands of the manufacturers say here build this

or we're also saying that hey we have a set of standards for what a Katrina kind of cottage really is. And if you build according to these standards you still get the seal of approval. It's just it's not there it's not in the design or serious but either way what we're trying to do is is to take this industry. Who is the whole industry so desperately wants to create it. A change in their image. Anyway so we're not really doing anything other than just helping to do what they want to do already. So that's kind of the long the short of what this movement must. Run and tell us about the product you're representing. OK well read and represent here is the mitigation house is to show individuals have to be on a stronger safer and better house here in Mississippi. And basically what we're trying to show here is the foundation to tie in the straps. To the walls up to the ceiling. And put it on the deck. How they are screwed. Yeah.

Obviously the storm. Directly affected. Exactly. Melanin. Product. Or any other single moms are. Trying to. Focus on. These this house particular models bill from the 2003 international Bill in Co. This is what has come from out of Florida and this is we used their play and their building code to put this particular model together. This model here is four four feet wide six feet long and it show an illustration. Again do you know the proper use of the hurricane straps and ties the proper way to put them away and the nail into me and I said astronomy. Now as my base is growing is the debt the topic for the one year out. How are you how are you how do you hold up. How do you keep going. It's easy I guess it sits with the people that we have and in the attitude of our people. It's been positive positive

positive from the very beginning. Both from the employee standpoint and a public standpoint. Within hours after the storm passing through we had people who had lost everything their houses and cars and everything coming to us Same What can we do to help our neighbors. We don't have anything to salvage So what can we do to help. And it's just that positive attitude that really makes it a whole lot easier for us knowing that we're all fighting for a common cause. We know there's not going to be any quick fixes no matter what happens. Even with I'm a guest of the proverbial pot of gold that we're looking for even if that all of a sudden dropped in we know that's not going to solve all our problems immediately definitely help. But but it's just so much easier when you have the the full support and cooperation in the end. And I guess cohesiveness of the public is just so much easier. You know we're working together. We're taking it day by day step by step. And as long as we're that much better off today than we were yesterday at least we're going in the right direction. You know we go back to what we said right after the St.. We may have lost the houses but we still have a home and it's by St. Louis and we may have lost everything else but we

still have each other in. Together we can we can do it. Comments have been made about get ready for weekends and stuff like this and one of the guys in any summed it up perfectly he said All the weekend means is that we have two more work days before Monday. And that's the way we look at it is no such thing as holidays and weekends we we start the mornings when we can we stop the days when we can't go any morning. We have we left off the night before that's where we start the next morning. Pick it up one step at a time here thanks. My pleasure. Thank you. Hey Susan tell me a little bit about your business and what you're doing here for the people on the coast. Where do you know Mississippi homes and what we're doing is we're matching the right home for our clients were using modular we're bringing in modular homes which is a real natural way to go right now given the times and the climate and what people are going through people are ready to get back into homes modulars are strong they're fast

they're they're very well built there's that equally pleasing. And what we do our company does we're more of a personal service and of it we start at the very beginning match the customer with the right home we go to a lot of different manufacturers this is a patriot home that we have here and we make sure that the person finds the House plan that they're looking for the look they're looking for and it fits their property their lifestyle. So tell me a little bit about this patriot that we're looking at. It's a great how it's about fifteen hundred ninety square feet it's got nine foot ceilings it's got a nice open floor plan it's got a beautiful kitchen great countertops great big utility room nice big bathroom in the master bedroom leading up to master bedroom it's got a nice little guest rooms or second bedrooms. It's very pretty. Very very pretty well thank you very much for your time and we appreciate what you're doing here for the folks on the coast and bringing together the manufacturer and the consumer the people here and helping everybody out so much thank you. Thanks for letting people know about it.

Tell us about the state of human society. Currently. Well we've actually been very fortunate we had started plans for a new facility about a year and a half two years before the storm hit. So we just proceeded on with those plants and we received grants from the H.S. us and the ASPCA to hurry up and get the new facility built. So we're now in our new 40000 square foot facility on Highway 49 and we've moved completely out of the old shelter which was badly damaged. A few animals did perish in the storm and and we're just we're doing very well we're ready to move on with. And you know new the next phase. All right that was just another one. Yes. That have been abandoned or. Left just after the storm. We too have a very high intake of animals regularly you know just on a normal daily basis and we are trying to set up programs to help inform the community about our spam neuter

programs and the importance of spam neutering your pets. But yeah we usually have a pretty high intake on a general basis so you have to know where the. Residents are just. That. And. I am sure they could call us at the facility Unum or there's 8 6 3 4 3 9 4 and we could help direct them from there too to get in for any information that they needed. How can that be. Generous. Hear him. Here. Well sure we have a volunteer program we always need help caring for the animals and helping keep to facility organize. Also we're having our first fundraiser since the storm it's a golf tournament and it's called Career classics. In September September 12th and down that that is really what you know where we could use the help is having some support for that. Yeah thanks. Again this has to be tremendously rewarding for you to see all these people and all

this activity. We're really excited about it. There's a lot of work that's gone into and what's interesting a lot of people don't know is an audit like this may take six months typically to pull together and staff that work with us in the governor's office I've done it in three weeks. What is Mississippi done differently in terms of long term planning that's making a difference. You know it's it's critical. It's really unique what's happened in Mississippi starting with embarked on the governor's commission laying out a broad framework for recovery that really in many ways develop a road map for us. And what multiple recommendations big picture issues like building codes water waste water sewer but also connecting it to land use and design principles that local governments have developed and put in the plans. And you know these plans are very visionary they show what could be. And now we're actually starting the hard part which is really the implementation of those points. And as the governor said it's going to take a lot longer than any of us ever imagined. That's right it's going to take longer than we hope is never fast enough in terms of assistance and people have lost so much on the coast. One of the benefits is many the people who have lost so much you always find

somebody that says well I lost everything but my neighbor lost even more. And the fact of blending that that that self-reliance that resilience with sound planning good design work. We're really excited about the possibilities. How are you able to keep this story front of mind. Because it's so easy for it to get lost in everything. Well you know some people would say well why is it not being given more press nationally for example. We're not so worried about that because when we talk to people in Washington or elsewhere they understand where we are and what we're facing. Some people would say well you know Mississippi is doing a good job so they don't need help. That's absolutely untrue. So we do have to continue to let people know that while we're working hard we've got a long way to go. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that because things are that people are working hard and doing good now doesn't mean that we still need help. What are you thinking about a year out. This is not where you planned to be a year ago when. You had different things going on in your life. Well that's true. But I'll tell you it's a real honor. It really is and every time I

talk to people I talk to people that are Mississippians the fact that they are so full so self-reliant so determined to rebuild. You can't help but want to help. Thanks. Thank you. I'm here to look especially modular homes. All the building process is because my home was destroyed. And. So I'm here to look at what we went back and put together to build my house and look at prices and stuff like that. We picked up some information we've been sitting in on the meetings. And we're interested in rebuilding if we can afford the insurance. Like everybody else. And. Yes we're getting information. I think it's it's very informational. I've learned a lot just coming around and looking at the different views and listening to the various presentations and I think it's a very positive event. And very educational. It's out there and have him come inside to take a break from the heat drink

this water which tasted really good right now. That's what I was so amazed at the exquisite and affordable homes that are being offered some people out here on the coast I mean I can't wait to get out there and take another look. You know it's not much cooler in here but I've seen everything from. Flood control programs on computers to kids playgrounds the whole thing there's a lot more to come I know there's a lot more to come so stay tuned. You are the. Newly elected mayor as a Pass Christian. Congratulations thank you very much you came to office under some sad kind of a situation your mayor just couldn't do. Well you know he was a very able leader. He was 12 years and he was mayor for about 10 years and. He's had health problems and different things like that he's about 70 years old when I was in for him you do the job for free for a long time the last 60 days. We did. Yes. But your town. Town we think it's pretty down the coast past began it was nicknamed Nature's gift to the Gulf Coast. And it was here with a beautiful sunny drab which is a

showcase with the homes up there that were antebellum homes and then we have what we think the most cosmopolitan calicoes we have some of the riches the rich Some of course for we have people make a living from the seafood industry. People make a living on the land and we have. I was equally. Black white ratio. We all have got along for years. We have a community and as a way to very diversified. And where are you. We're about a year later. We're you know it took us almost a year to get cleaned up you know those beautiful homes we have about 60 percent of those have gone but 75 percent are regular homes we look. Gone are on level after hurricane. So it took quite a while to get well about 1.5 million cubic yards of debris out of the tax base. Text bases is a serious problem because for years and we always lived off of that along taxes because of the homes that we had down there. And then. And about 30 miles my sales tax and then one more came in town about two years ago and we just. You know it was just. What a.

Fabulous. Well while more and the businesses were decimated as 60 percent of them below in Texas decimated so we got a serious problem. How do you solve. Well the resilient people down and they've been through many hurricanes Camille hit everybody Camille probably slapped us all or anybody else and we almost feel Katrina did too. But they're coming back. We've done over 71 million dollars and permit permits already this year. We probably have in bodybuilding from from the water's edge to above mile back which is all we are. But is it going to be just a rich people's place. No other people are too we got the fact we don't talent goes ahead raise elevation I shit. And one reasons is done it is we have some from areas that were middle class in and other types of communities where the houses were in good shape and less than 50 percent damage and they were able to go in and got those houses and get back in a minute faster right than if that had him down still how do you keep going every day. Keep going every day but not stop and think about it and I tell people in and of us a lot of times we tell them it.

Right now and other people agree with me if it's almost a little boat across the mound it was. Months after hurricane cause we were going to such a place. I wouldn't have time to stop and think about it. Plus it's clean it's cleaned up now in a pace a slow down you can really see where the you know how much devastation head and we're building back fast but. It's like when I started picking up debris they would pick up water on the street so my so then clean up and then but with so much debris you could tell it was picked up and same thing with Bill back to Bill and back but you don't see it as much because this is so much open space air thank thank you very much. David I'm standing here admiring your very beautiful home tell us a little bit about what you're doing here and the advantage that you're offering for Mississippians. Well thank you Janet we're glad to be here you know modular housing brings advantages to Gulf coastal residents here because we can build houses a little faster when building the code and we can absolutely build into whatever imagination that you have yourself and that's why we designed this house to show you how we can take a small space for

small lots and we can not only give you the design features an architectural integrity but absolutely the the structural integrity as well as assets built to 140 mile an hour winds on and from start to finish in the construction process we can take you from your order to occupancy in about 90 days. Well I think that I think all of those things are elements that are surprising to most people in what you would not expect. When you think of a modular home. So I'm excited about taking a tour of the inside and seeing what you've done in there. What options do you offer people as far as the interior space of the home. Well Janet we have all kinds of options that we can offer you from whatever kind of cabinetry that you'd like to see to 10 foot ceilings to ceramic floors to wonderful windows in other apartments is that you see in the home and we just like for you to come in and take a look and just have a peek for yourself. This this is just amazing. This is. What are you thinking if you walk

around here. Everybody has decided to finally get serious about this rebuilding effort. Everyone has been sitting around for the last 12 months recovering from the shock of Katrina. And. All of us I think I've been a little frustrated at the lack of progress in some areas. Particularly the area of housing. And it's been an accumulation of factors that it. Held things up. It's insurance and part insurance. The grants. Construction costs. Uncertainty over thema elevation levels. And I face it fear. And you mix this holds little. Witches brew together and it's a delay is the result. And people are now think they are. Working their way through all of this. And I'm getting very serious about. Addressing this housing question. We got the

job down here on the coast. You have more jobs than you have people and exactly any place to put it. Exactly so the housing you know these people who say the problem is housing housing and housing. I couldn't agree with them more. I've been down here for just the last two days looking around and every place I go I see help wanted signs there Exactly exactly. This is an exciting place to be. And it's really very very fascinating to see. How this. This. Whole rebuilding effort is playing out. Your major thrust has been what's called the go zone. Those go zone opportunities. Are these big wins or are they linked. Both. The as far as tax benefits are concerned everybody is eligible for a fellow that's buying a new pickup truck or somebody wants to build a new chemical plant. Same rules apply. You've had a lot of people come down here. In fact

earlier this summer the U.S. the commerce secretary came down looked looked around. But what's the result of all that. The result I think is that a level of cooperation and financial support from the federal government like no place is ever seen before. Governor Barbour has orchestrated this whole effort. With the great help of our congressional delegation. People really need to be very very appreciative of the level of support that we have gotten. This isn't unprecedented in the history of our country. Look in your crystal ball for me. All right. All right. I mean how long will it be would be two years will it be five years. If we play it right. It won't. There won't be a time frame on this. You say well we need a time frame so that we can get these people out of these famous trailers that portion of it I couldn't agree with you more. But as far as. A good. Business. Boom. An

excellent economy. I think that. If we do the recovery right it's a it has a momentum of its own that can carry on into the future. But right now again the reason we're sitting here today at the Coliseum is addressing this question of housing that is the squeak point. That we have got to solve. That's the missing piece of the puzzle. It really is and it can't be solved overnight. It's unfortunately it can't be solved overnight. Certainly isn't solved by FEMA's trailers I'm. I met a lady last night who is living in one of them who's just Absolutely. Panic stricken. She's afraid to go home. Well. This is. Our hearts go out to these folks. Yeah. All we know to do is try everything. And see what works. Is it modular housing. Is it. Katrina

cottage it is a. Government. Assisted. Low income housing. Is it. Trying to get major international homebuilders and into this market who have never been here before. It's going to be a combination of all of these things working together. And the pain level. In my opinion will subside as we see as we succeed. But we're going to be carrying some pain around here for for a while. I've just a couple of seconds left but this is the this is the anniversary. How have you changed in the last week. I think I have a little more realistic expectation of what. Is actually doable. And I think I have recognized some questions that. Frankly I don't think we've answered yet. Thank you.

Tell us about your product and what you can. OK. Basically we came up to us to help people with storm related activity. Basically within the when and floods I'm here on the coast or anywhere in the country where there they would have a storm similar to the one we've had here where there had been problems the speeding wind or water with the insurance companies and trying to praise exactly what happened to your home or business. This is basically mounted in the ground from the. From the bottom of the stainless steel. Here is what the concrete on this structure is pointed at your home can record visually day or night. And basically is just a video camera that that has up to two months recording time. And. Will watch what goes on during the storm. It's got a 30 gig hard drive. Which is. It records. All the information inside there. What you have to

come back and remove that after the stone. In case of power outages we have a. Battery backup. That. Armoring batteries down inside the inside the ground. And it will continue to record for up to a week after. After powers. In a nutshell that's that's basically what it is. Now is this product developed as a direct result of it was it was my business partner came up with this idea and he you know solve the problems with that were going on in the industry with people who had been trying to figure out whether it was me and whether it was water and trying to figure out what we could provide. To the consumer that would help them solve this problem. Whether they would have to go to court or stop legal fees you know help insurance companies you know basically know exactly what happened instead everybody just kind of scratching their heads and you know not really knowing where to go. First of all you rode out the storm it's just about the anniversary of it right. Are you.

What do you think. Well it's exciting I tell you how you know he told me that he wakes up he can't sleep at night. Yeah yeah yeah sleep. I think we forget about what sleep means you know you should sleep as much as you can. But there are so many things happening so fast and the needs are so. So huge that there's no way that we can try to satisfy every every need all day every day. We just have to do the best we can and fortunately we have a lot of really smart people working down here that have come in from out of Dan and the people that already work for the city. And the state the federal government been incredible. You know it it it you can get overwhelmed. Pretty easy if you let yourself. But we can do that are you anywhere near where you thought you'd be. No you know I really expected that we'd be further along in most respects by now I'd like to have seen a lot more big construction going on. Where we are far beyond where I expected we'd be from a debris cleanup where you know well into

that by some measures were done on the initial cleanup Anyway we are still a lot of debris out there we have to go into a new contract. And pick up now different types of debris. But the big project we'd like to have seen them coming along sooner but when you start talking about you know a quarter of a billion dollars is a small. Project by many. You go have to major players who are looking. Yeah yeah. Arena you're right down there are port projects in the. Harbor you know we have the largest harbor and those large part on the coast the biggest port of course in the state which there are more than a couple of people don't realize that. So the dollars and the negotiations are much bigger and they take a lot more time and the confidences are much more important that we honor them. When you start talking about projects at this scale so that's frustrating I'd love to be able to. See a lot

of big projects going up right now but they're all still in the working. Building process and a huge concern for people is this this feeling that they're going to be nothing with condominiums nothing with high rises on long beach front. Right. What do you tell them. Well that's not what we want to go for. We do want condominiums or we're going to have condominiums in specific areas but we want our beach front to be a place that our citizens recognize and our tourists recognize the similarities from pre-storm. We had some great Southern homes the couple of which the city owned one in particular called Grass long it was built in 1836. And and we do intend to rebuild that. So we're going to try to recreate as and recreate as much of that history as we can. And we'll have condos in certain areas. Single family homes and other certain inappropriate areas will have gaming in certain areas. But we don't want to have all of one thing we want to have a nice healthy mixture. What will you have for people of moderate to low income. We'll have a lot to

do not feel like they're being left out of this. All right well we're very fortunate Bill Ford is a very large city geographically about 77 square miles. There's a lot of undeveloped property. You go for there's some that's actually we we have found a few pockets within the city that have never been built. Or built out from the original layout of the city over 100 years ago. You know and maybe they just. For whatever reason they did a lot for originally a little bit smaller and they didn't get built out and then when things changed back in the 40s and 50s and people went to larger lots these got. Kind of left behind. So we've had builders come in and say well there's lots of work and we've adopted are in the process of adopting a code that will allow us to really go into those those areas and reconstruct or construct homes redevelopment. So that's exciting. So we will have some affordable housing. That's the big hard thing to find right now. We don't have a lot of apartment complexes in our city we need that. Family and we do need we need housing just really from every angle from the apartment complex

is the most affordable basic ones. To luxury apartments economy and we need. Single family. You name it you know Welling's we need big projects so may be your thing. Yes sir. Thank you. Thanks for letting us talk to you today I love your home it's just a real cottage the feel right reminds me of something I'd see on the beach but it's a little smaller maybe than some of the other homes here today but tell us what some of the advantages are of having a smaller home for the people here on the coast. First off with the people who've been affected by the hurricanes they have been limited there to the amount of space that they can place their temporary housing until they get back on their feet. So with a park model ban a smaller home they can use these and utilize these to house themselves until I do get to that point. As far as the inside you know you're set up with a bedroom a bunk bed photo wife's sofa sleeper. There are several different places that you can utilize inside even though it's small. But it also comes out to where

people or you know they can utilize these in which with a mobile home or something else that's larger it would and it would make Facebook. Well clearly there's an advantage for this and a need for this type of home here for the people down here. OK thank you very much. Mayor Moran you're about to do one of these kind of on your own. Over over in Ocean Springs are you going to have a collection of little houses. Well one of our local architects Bruce Toler and his partner Michael live Atar they work very closely with the architects and planners who were here last October for the charrette. And out of that came a number of designs for smaller affordable cottages that were in the architectural coastal binocular. Those Katrina cottage 300 square feet that has gotten so much national attention in Ocean Springs on display right now. That cottage will be moved to a new cottage Square. It is a showcase

neighborhood of. A variety of cottages at reasonable price points. When do you expect people to be able to come in and take a look at. They're under construction right now. So within a couple of months we'll should have some models that will be open to the public. You're you're you're out are you were you thought you'd be. I'm quite pleased with our progress in fact we were very fortunate we didn't fare better than some of our sister communities in terms of we did not have storm surge downtown. We lost a lot of room some awnings and and restored some buildings but at least it wasn't water damage downtown. Of course our waterfront is destroyed. We quickly reestablished the flood elevations ordinances and we've just recently adopted some very stringent guidelines for commercial buildings and on single family homes. We're catching some flak from the developers who would like to come in with metal buildings on our highway 90. That's exactly what we're trying to

avoid. We're trying to stop sprawl. And encourage quality design while at the same time are or calibrating smart code for Ocean Springs of course that's going to take a number of public hearings and educate the public. So in the meantime we're trying to stop sprawl in its tracks. People encourage people to consider strong design just like in Madison Mississippi where they've been quite successful at that. We're thinking. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Neil what do you have down here that you show in public. Well today we have a DuPont storm room with Kevil are on display. This is actually a four by six room designed by Dupont to. Help with hurricanes or tornadoes. And what makes this roof more stable than a normal house house. This room has to be anchored into five inches of concrete. It is anchored to the ground. It has careful or basically the

I'm sorry the design is three quarter inch plywood Kevil or five inches of foam and three quarter inches of plywood it is fame approved to withstand an F-5 tornado and can stop two by fours up to 100 miles an hour. Now how is it going to benefit the people on the in the coastal area. Well it could be a bit people. Not in a flood plain zone with any storm room. You cannot be in a flood zone because you would drown obviously. So houses built maybe north of town or anywhere not in a famous flood zone could benefit from this as a safe and secure structure. Well are you guys offering any sort of discounts or incentives to the residents of the devastated here. There's actually a discount through the local emergency management offices. It's up to thirty five hundred dollars for the cost of the storm room that can be reimbursed you would just have to go to your local emergency management office and find out more information. To ask. Thank you.

Here is a part of this event that's going on here at the Coliseum you've got a new fraud that's going on. It's hard to believe that people are out there trying to take advantage of these folks but I heard the other day of somebody who said that a woman gave a construction guy a blank check. Unbelievable. And unfortunately it is going to put at least three billion dollars to begin with three billion dollars of $250000 per homeowner for those homeowners that did not have the flood insurance and woods and their homes were destroyed at St. Paul doctors offices to make sure that money was not stolen. Those public funds get to the homeowner. And one of the things we're doing here today with the booth and the effort that we've tried in the media is to say be careful ask questions. Don't pay in cash most and I'm working closely with Mississippi homeowners the Home Builders Association and also the contractors in the state don't pay in cash. Don't feel pressured a lot of times it'll be a scheme of someone will say I will put a roof but I gotta have the money today so I can go buy the roofing material and

I'll be right back. A desperate homeowner will give them fifteen hundred dollars and they'll never be sane again. Blank checks. Horrible situations. They will actually come in and say I'm here from India to inspect your property in a school call she $250 for maid inspected before you get any money. That's another group. We don't charge anything. There is an inspection process but there's no charge to the homeowner. Never give your bank account or your social security number. We've had frolics where people have said we want to give you a grant but we need your bank account your routing number and a copy of one of your checks to do that. Don't ever release a chit. It is incredible to think that there would be people out there taking advantage of folks who are still in this situation and you can sure understand their desperation and say that it's all there the money is there that they're getting for their home. They're desperate to re bail. Con man or preying on him every day.

And the best thing we can do and with help like yours is to say know how to protect yourself. Our state all doctors office called the Katrina Fraud Prevention Program and our 800 number let us make sure that we can answer any questions that you might have. The main thank if you feel at all uncomfortable with someone who is in your yard telling you they're going to do you a favor but they need the money. Stop. Call us call the attorney general's office let someone know before you give any money to that alleged builder. We have an 800 number I do it's made hundred nine five six eight hundred forty six and I'm sure it'll be on the screen. But that eight hundred nine five six eight hundred forty six Katrina Fraud Prevention Unit we will answer the question for you will check references will come out and interview that builder if you need us to we will do the work to protect you if you'll just give us a call. And as always if you have questions go to our Web site. Mississippi Public Broadcasting dot org

MPV online dot org and click on the Katrina link and we'll take you there and give you all the help. Thank you Brian. Thanks. Thank. You. But we're a national nonprofit organization called Kaboom and our vision is a great place to play within walking distance of every child. And after the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast our staff felt really compelled to come down and put play spaces and help restore playgrounds but also restore childhoods. At the same time. So we've committed to build 100 playgrounds along the Gulf Coast and we've got nine done and which means 91 more to go. The concept is if everybody gives a little look at what we can accomplish together and we're really excited about what we've already done and really hopeful what still needs to be done along the coast. If you need more information about any of the topics we show you tonight please go to our website

NPB on line dot org. Click on Beyond Katrina. You'll find all the links that you're looking for on the next edition of our program. The family one year later also Pearlington will spend a week there with the volunteers who are helping the locals recover. And what's the whole Gulf Coast look like from the air. One year after Katrina come along for another helicopter ride. All that and more on our next edition of Beyond Katrina. And that's our program tonight from the governor's recovery expo here at the Mississippi coast Coliseum. I'm John Edwards. Thanks for joining us. Tonight. Thank you. Beyond Katrina is made possible by a grant from Chevron. Chevron is proud to be the sole

underwriter of this ongoing series about the determination of our friends and neighbors. Chevron and its employees are partnering to rebuild Mississippi. Apple is announcing tonight a special effort students helping students to restore hope to these students so severely impacted by Katrina. Five colleges have been a denied as having been most severely impacted by Katrina. And you see them listed on your screen. We are asking colleges and 5 beta kappa chapters to hold fund raising activities to help these students. But five theta Kappa members and nonmembers who are one semester away from

graduating help them stay in school and earn that degree. Funds will be used to purchase books and computers pay for tuition and housing whatever resources are needed by the student to stay in school this next spring by theta Kappa will work with each college's financial aid office to determine student's needs. Finally we hope to continue this relief effort through 2006 to ensure that students who entered these five community colleges this past fall will have the resources to stay in school and complete their degrees by spring of 2007. We simply can't afford to see these students stop out because statistics show if they do stop out they most likely will not earn a degree. Please support 5 that a kappa students helping students by sending contributions to the fight they take out the honor society and care of the hurricane relief fund. Sixteen twenty five east over drive in

Jackson Mississippi 3 9 2 1 1. Please visit our Web site. Debbie Debbie Debbie you've got PTK dog org for this address and complete details about our hurricane relief efforts from all of us of five feet up. And the National Collegiate honors Council. Thank you. And good day. Thank you. The.