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Katrina Damaged or Ruined Nearly 500,000 Homes; Red Cross Surveys Destruction As Challenges Mount

Posted on: Thursday, 15 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

Hurricane Katrina damaged or demolished nearly half a million homes in three states, the American Red Cross said Wednesday - four times as many as Hurricane Andrew did when it hit South Florida in 1992.

As President Bush prepared to speak to the nation from an undisclosed location in the disaster zone at 9 tonight, environmental and fiscal challenges continued to mount along the Gulf Coast, and Louisiana launched a massive investigation of health care facilities where patients who weren't evacuated died after the storm.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans assured there will be no independent, bipartisan panel like the 9-11 commission to study the government's reaction to the storm - at least for now. In a strict party-line vote, 54-44, they scuttled a plan by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to create one.

Also, federal officials cast doubt on New Orleans' safety, with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson calling the pollution left behind by Katrina the worst environmental disaster his agency has ever seen.

Sediment left from floodwaters is so contaminated with petroleum byproducts that the agency is having difficulty testing for other pollutants, he said. Nearly 400 oil spills were reported in and around the city after the storm.

In Washington, White House and congressional officials said Bush will call for an unprecedented federal commitment to rebuild New Orleans and other areas obliterated by Katrina. They said the president will put the United States on pace to spend more in the next year on the storm's aftermath than it has over three years on the Iraq war.

Bush plans to offer federal assistance to help flood victims find jobs, get housing and health care, and attend school, according to White House aides.

The Red Cross' attempt to quantify the wreckage in Katrina's aftermath found a swath of destruction that extended 150 miles inland, with entire neighborhoods flattened and flooded. Mississippi suffered damage to as many as one out of five homes.

Altogether, more than 240,000 homes in Louisiana, an additional 240,000 in Mississippi and 1,700 in Alabama got hit in some way, the Red Cross said. Hurricane Andrew, which until now was the costliest storm in U.S. history, damaged about 125,000 homes.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency cautioned that Red Cross estimates are sometimes high, but said its own assessment won't be done until all homeowners' claims are filed and evaluated.

The hurricane's death toll stood at just over 700 Wednesday, but officials in New Orleans warned that more bodies might still be found.

EPA officials said that although the floodwaters in New Orleans pose a health risk because of dangerous levels of sewage-related bacteria and toxic chemicals, a minimal number of air pollutants, such as methanol, isobutylene and freon, have been found.

Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.

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