As rebuilding efforts continue along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, residents are both eager and reluctant to get out of their temporary FEMA trailers and back into permanent homes. In Hancock County, considered “ground zero” of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, more than 5,000 permits have been issued for rebuilding, but those numbers pale in comparison to the county’s approximately 46,000 residents present before Hurricane Katrina. The current estimated population in Hancock is just over 35,000.
Those permits have been issued for residential and commercial structures, and include repairs and infrastructure projects.
Though rebuilding abounds, many residents still reside in FEMA trailers. Now one year after Katrina, those residents are facing tight deadlines to find their own housing. Citizens occupying the trailers have only six months until the 18-month occupancy deadline is up, a situation that could leave several Coast residents homeless.
FEMA public affairs officer Eugene Brezany said there are currently no plans to extend that deadline.
“We are authorized to provide housing for up to 18 months, and we’re anticipating that that will be enough time for people to recover,” he said. “We’re still far, far from that deadline.”
According to FEMA records, more than 36,000 trailers are currently occupied on the Coast. More than 1,200 FEMA trailers have been deactivated in Hancock County because they are no longer needed by residents who have rebuilt their homes.
“That’s a pretty sizeable number,” Brezany said. Most of those trailers have been returned to FEMA’s staging area in Purvis, he added.
Across the Coast, about 12,000 trailers have been deactivated.
Brezany said FEMA is working with residents to develop plans for permanent housing.
“That’s part of our deal. We’re working on a monthly basis to make sure they have a plan,” he said.
FEMA is calling residents periodically and also guiding them to www.msdisasterhousing.org, a Web site designed to help Katrina victims find permanent housing. There are currently 4,228 property listings on the site.
Ada Lester and Mary Sams, residents of the Bay Village FEMA trailer park in Bay St. Louis, said they haven’t made plans for housing and that FEMA has not yet contacted them about it.
“We don’t have any idea where we’ll stay,” Lester said. “I’m praying for a miracle.”
Lester, a Bay St. Louis resident for more than 10 years, said she hopes to stay in the city after the deadline.
“I enjoy it, and I hope to live here for a long time. This is where everything is for me. This is where my family is.”
Sams, a Waveland resident for 16 years prior to Katrina, said she is worried that her future may not be in the city.
“[FEMA] hasn’t said anything about fixing the place I used to live. We’re very nervous. No one has talked to us about housing yet.”
Despite a lack of contact, Lester said she is grateful for FEMA’s work.
“I feel FEMA has really done their part, putting a roof over my head.”