Pass Christian resident Sally James lost two homes to Hurricane Katrina and was offered a total of $29,000 from her insurance company for both. James, 69, a public library worker, said without volunteers to roof and handle other expensive jobs, she and her husband likely couldn't afford their West Second Street home, which they moved into in September.
"Middle-class people have had this problem more than anyone else," James said. "At the going rate on our house, we would have probably paid $70,000 more. We couldn't afford that. Maybe if we were 20 years younger, it wouldn't have fazed us. But not at our age."
She believes many in the relatively affluent but hard-hit town used volunteer labor to rebuild. She says any savings are critical for the storm's victims.
James' home owner's insurance is now $6,000 per year on the 1,800-square feet house, which was bought partially with a Small Business Administration loan. James doubts she'll live long enough to pay off the loan, which requires the home to be insured.
Even with the hardships, James understands she has something many others still badly want.
"There isn't anything like sleeping in your own bed under your own roof," James said. "I laid in the bed that night and I thanked God."
Where we stand
FEMA trailers:
Some 45,000 FEMA trailers were placed in Mississippi to shelter storm victims. As of this week, there were 7,027 units still occupied. FEMA still operates 11 trailer parks, but more than 75 percent of the trailers are on private property.
Housing:
Katrina destroyed more than 64,120 homes in South Mississippi, and damaged 77,670. By the storm's first year anniversary, more than 41,000 building permits had been issued.
Debris removal:
Just over 31 million cubic yards of debris has been removed in the six southernmost counties, which represents 100 percent of the refuse that FEMA has agreed to reimburse local governments to remove. The debris Katrina created in those counties is enough to fill the 72,000-seat Louisiana Superdome roughly seven times.
Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida in 1992, had been considered the most destructive hurricane to hit the United States. It left 15 million cubic yards of debris in Florida, but Katrina generated more than 46 million cubic yards of debris in Mississippi alone.
Utilities:
Katrina left 329,870 customers in Coastal Mississippi without power. Some 40,950 poles were damaged or replaced. Since the storm, enough wire to connect from Biloxi to Vancouver, British Columbia, which are 2,261 miles apart, was strung by the area's three power companies - Mississippi Power, Coast Electric and Singing River Electric.
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