Miss. Residents Move Forward in Recovery from Hurricane Katrina

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Federal and state disaster officials in Mississippi provided the following summary of the ongoing assistance effort as of close of business Feb. 1, 2006.

* Individuals and Households Program total payments disbursed: $1,064,040,211 .
* Public Assistance obligated funds currently total $745,283,422 .
* The U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster Assistance Program has approved 15,406 home loans, 2,594 business loans and 248 economic injury loans, totaling $1,352,748,200.
* The cruise ship shelter is currently docked in Pascagoula and has 111 displaced households plus FEMA staff onboard.
* 493 portable classrooms and 231 temporary offices have been provided to hurricane damaged counties by FEMA and installed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
* More than 30.9 million cubic yards of debris have been removed from public and private property by USACE, local governments and contractors.
* 404,313 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 238,715. Total state registrations are at 514,913.
* The total number of travel trailers currently occupied is 34,336. There are 472 mobile homes occupied. Approximate number of people occupying temporary housing: 93,982. There are approximately 1,126 people occupying 417 temporary housing units that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
* 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 for disaster assistance 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 online at www.fema.gov. The deadline for applications for Individual Assistance is March 11, 2006.

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