People enter their apartment complex next to a signboard warning those who try and steal items in the wreckage left by Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, Mississippi yesterday. President George W. Bush said yesterday that it will take years for Gulf Coast states to fully recover from the catastrophic losses caused by Hurricane Katrina.
WASHINGTON, (Reuters):
THE BUSH administration and Congress began working on emergency legislation yesterday to aid the Hurricane Katrina recovery, as two former officials said the needs may be comparable to the September 11 aftermath.
Joe Allbaugh, who coordinated the response and recovery to the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, said federal relief aid for Katrina may approach $30 billion.
"This is going to be the most expensive disaster in this country's history," said Allbaugh, who left as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2003 and now is based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
About $13.6 billion was approved last year for relief from four hurricanes in the southeastern United States, with most of it going to Florida.
Allbaugh said the September 11 attacks might be a more appropriate comparison than last year's hurricanes in terms of the cost of the recovery.
Katrina's powerful winds and flooding shut nine Gulf Coast refineries and four others were running at reduced rates. They will be part of the infrastructure in need of rebuilding.
FEMA has about $2.4 billion available now for emergency efforts, which officials and analysts said could last a couple of weeks and may be up to a month. The White House and Congress are focusing funds needed to help Louisiana and Mississippi cope after that runs out.
SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET REQUEST
White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters he expected that a supplemental budget request would be needed.
"This is a major catastrophe and we're certainly going to do everything from the standpoint of the federal government to make sure that the needs are met as best we can," he said.
President George W. Bush cut short his month-long Texas vacation to return to Washington to deal with the crisis. Congress is set to return on Tuesday after its summer break.
James Lee Witt, who ran FEMA under President Bill Clinton and oversaw more than 350 disasters, said he thought the tally for spending on Katrina's recovery may exceed that of Sept. 11 because the damage is spread out over such a large area.
"The cost is going to be astronomical," he said, adding that much of the aid will have to be focused on helping people, rather than repairing infrastructure.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told ABC television that the historic port city may be uninhabitable for as many as three or four months. This would require housing for the nearly 500,000 residents.
