So every week during spring break so far we have done something called the Tuff Stuff Challenge. Named for our Hands On Alumnus Amy "Tuff Stuff" DeHuff, all of the groups may enter a group who must complete 2,000 PCPs (push-ups, crunches, pull-ups) and then answer a quiz with important facts about Biloxi and Katrina. The Long Termers have been doing very well thus far. We got squeezed out on the first week, cheated the second week due to some technicality, but have won the third and fourth week. Anyhoo, I wanted to share the facts with you all so you can learn a bit about Biloxi. Enjoy.
TUFF STUFF FACTS:
The job market is rebuilding faster than the housing market.
The initial federal allocation for Katrina relief was $100 billion towards immediate and long term relief.
The current temporary housing provided by FEMA, including FEMA trailers, is set to expire September 1, 2007.
The first act by Governor Barbour regarding the rebuilding issued after Katrina allowed for on-shore gambling within 800 feet of the water.
53 people died in Biloxi during Katrina.
The recovery process, since landfall, from Hurricane Katrina expected to take 10 years.
Katrina damaged or destroyed 80% of East Biloxi’s housing stock, including over 2/3’s of public housing units. The city has permitted casinos to move farther inland, which has driven the price of land upward.
In 1992, Congress authorized a new program called Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, or HOPE VI, to carry out the commission’s recommendations. Through HOPE VI, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) called for the rebuilding of severely distressed public housing. The specific goals were to revitalize the sites of severely distressed public housing and, as a result, improve the surrounding neighborhood, lessen isolation and reduce the concentration of very low-income families and build mixed-income communities and to provide coordinated, comprehensive community and supportive services that help residents to achieve self-sufficiency, young people to attain educational excellence, and the community to secure a desirable quality of life.
AmeriCorps NCCC is a program for 18-24 year olds that gives them an opportunity to serve different communities around the United States for 10 months in teams of 8-12 people that allows members to do varying types of work all around the U.S. This includes an opportunity to become a wild land firefighter and be certified as a Type A Sawyer, and receive mapping, compass, pumping, weather, and drip torch training. Each individual receives a general living allowance throughout the term of service as well as a $4,725 education stipend at the end of their service.
31% of the annual family income in East Biloxi before Katrina was under $14,999, after Katrina that has increased to 41%.
The current temporary housing provided by FEMA, including FEMA trailers, is set to expire September 2007.
Biloxi is an Indian word meaning ‘First People’. It was the first European settlement in the lower Mississippi Valley, the original Old Biloxi (which was located across the bay) was founded by the French in 1699. Since then, the city has lived under eight flags: French, English, Spanish, West Florida Republic, Mississippi, Magnolia, Confederate States, Mississippi State and United States.
Harrison County is named for U.S. President William Henry Harrison.
Sierra Club tests have found 83% of FEMA trailers in Mississippi and Louisiana have levels of formaldehyde above the recommended limit of .10 ppm.
74% of owner occupied homes in the lower 3 counties (Harrison, Hancock, Jackson) of Mississippi had moderate to severe damage.
1,836 people lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina and subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since 1928.
There have been about 150,000 trailers distributed for Katrina, Wilma, and Rita in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.
In Mississippi, winds reached 120 mph, and the right-front of the storm caused a powerful 27 foot storm surge in the central Mississippi coast which penetrated several miles inland.
Dr. Gilbert Mason organized a series of ‘wade-ins’ in 1959-1960 to desegregate the beaches of the gulf coast. The most famous wade-in was on April 24, 1960, when white men were prepared to use violence to keep the beaches segregated. The white men were holding chains and bats, and black children were being beaten. Police officers arrested many participants of the wade-in, but didn’t arrest anyone in the white mob. Dr. Gilbert Mason eventually won the legal battle and the beaches were desegregated in 1968.
In Mississippi the water rose for about 8 hours and then drained. In New Orleans the same wave breached the levies and reversed the drains, but then was unable to recede, leading to the prolonged disaster period.
During Katrina both of the bridges that connect the central part of the Mississippi coastline, most of Harrison county, where we are were destroyed. This is a hassle for people who work and live here, it limits economic exchanges across the waterways, and also limits evacuation routes.
20% of the pre-storm population of East Biloxi was Vietnamese.
The major Vietnamese migration to Biloxi occurred in the early 1980’s. They were literally bussed in from NOLA to work the low-paying jobs in the shrimping industry, working in the factories canning and packaging.
The Vietnamese settled on the Point, the Eastern-most edge of Biloxi. The heart of the Vietnamese on-shore economy is the intersection of Oak and Howard. This put them in close proximity to their jobs, but they were also buying land that was still depreciated in value due to the fact that Camille had hit about a decade earlier. Most were probably unaware of the fact that they were buying such vulnerable land, or that the land was cheep as a reflection of its vulnerability. As a result, they were living in the areas most damaged by Katrina, and face severe rebuilding challenges as individuals and a community.
The homeless shelter in East Biloxi was destroyed and the city will not give them a new permit. The church, Seashore, is merging with Beauviour and they are discussing options for homeless resources out of this church. Back Bay Mission, the other main service provider lost 6 of it’s 7 buildings, and has also cut back it’s homeless resources.
Owner/occupied homes: many people have credit problems or don’t have clear deeds which make them ineligible for money from the state or federal government, or banks
