Miss. Officials Update Katrina Recovery

Federal and state disaster officials provided the following summary of the ongoing assistance effort in Mississippi as of close of business Dec. 14, 2005:

* Individuals and Households program total payments disbursed: $945,450,645.
* Public Assistance obligated funds currently total $605,560,333.
* The U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster Assistance Program has approved 6,400 home loans, 650 business loans and 173 economic injury loans, totaling $529,444,000.
* The cruise ship shelter is currently docked in Pascagoula and has 1,076 displaced persons and 32 FEMA staff on-board.
* 349 portable classrooms and 183 temporary offices have been provided to hurricane damaged counties by FEMA and installed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
* More than 23 million cubic yards of debris has been removed from public and private property by USACE, local governments and contractors.
* FEMA assigned the USACE to install 49,760 temporary roofs through Operation Blue Roof.
* There are seven open shelters (including the cruise ship shelter) housing 1,104 individuals.
* 378,000 housing inspections have been completed.
* To date, the four counties with the most registrations for Individual Assistance are: Forrest, Harrison, Hinds and Jackson. The total number of registrations for all four counties is 237,321.
* The total number of travel trailers currently occupied is 26,995. There are 292 mobile homes occupied. Approximate number of people occupying temporary housing: 73,675.
* The four counties with the most travel trailers placed are: Hancock, Harrison, Jackson and Pearl River.

Federal and state disaster recovery officials urge those who have not done so to apply as soon as possible by calling the toll-free application number at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or (TTY) 1-800-462-7585 for speech- or hearing-impaired. Individuals may also register for disaster assistance online at www.fema.gov. The deadline for new applications for Individual Assistance is Jan. 11, 2006.