About, we did have a lot of water. The lowpressure gas lines were affected. Although you may not have had water in your neighborhood or in your house, because of the design of the gas system, it is a network system, built like a spider web. The water can enter the system from an area a mile away. Want to get there, it is a process we use where we have to tap into the main, and stuck the suck the water out. In this case, we have a lot of water. Under our houses next to mine that have gas. The lady to the right has gas. The good news is, if the houses near you are getting gas, you are not far behind. What they do, they call it chase water trouble. Apparently the area you are being served by is a low point preventing gas to get to your area. I dont know exactly, if you can see me and give me your specific address, i will go ahead and get the information specifically for your area to let you know what the eta is. C. Ray nagin we will try to accommodate you. I am a senior, you said you were worried about them. I have a house leaning on mine. C. Ray nagin it is still leaning . Yes. C. Ray nagin let me get your address again. Give that to me before we leave. I will personally follow that. Good afternoon. Who am i . I am a new orleans at citizen who has a vested interest in the recovery. It is hard to believe the United States is spending nearly 1 billion per week in iraq and here, in new orleans, the United States, we are being neglected. Why do we have to beg and plead with our elected officials that we need help. [applause] this is the United States of america. The young lady mentioned earlier, we did revealed japan after destroying it. This is new orleans, a specific cultural design. I love new orleans. Secondly, we as new orleans citizens, our first step is to show the country that we are rebuilding. When you go to the highrise and you come down, there is no signs of rebuilding. We need to clean up those roads. The state will not do it, we need to do it. Get some prisoners there. Pick up the trash. We need to show them that we are actively participating in our recovery. [applause] 15 seconds. The person who handles the wardens, get out there and pick up the litter. Show them that we are trying to start somewhere. Right where it stands now, new orleans, United States of america, we are citizens, we demand that our president steps up. Step up and be there for us. We have paid our taxes. Thank you. C. Ray nagin thank you. [applause] good evening. My name is eloise, as a community activist, mr. Mayor, you do not see me too often, but i am there to say look at my community. Right now what i see i do not like. Katrina has passed and gone, but we are still living in debris. We organize to move all of this out of the way so work can be done. It is months now. I have been home i came home on the fifth of november. To this day i am trying to get my utilities back. Cox cable sent me a bill. You know what im saying . We need to stop playing games. Stop playing thanking everyone is naive. I dont want to pay Energy Anything and say i will wait later for them to pay me back. They will not. I am not looking to pay no 200 upfront. I was not at the party that told you not to have money. I was not there. I am not going to be responsible for anything that is not my doing. Mr. Mayor, i want to say to you, thank you. I got on the bus, no fare. I could not believe it. I said, thank you mr. Mayor for that. There is a whole lot of things that are keeping us from functioning properly. I have a home, my home was not damaged, but a little bit. Because of the debris and all of this, i cannot get anything done. C. Ray nagin you said you live in algiers . In the cut off. C. Ray nagin see that lady behind you, give her your address. We will get the debris taken care of. All right, thank you. Mr. Mayor, i am reverend howard. Can you get closer to the microphone. Dont cut me off. Two minutes. [laughter] i am here because i am appalled. First of all at fema. Mr. Mayor, you gave them your plan for the trailer parks. I have seen one. My question is, what does fema need to have to put those trailers where the requests were made . Where are they . What is wrong with you . Does that mean that you are that incompetent . All of our citizens want to come back home. Speak for yourself. I cannot find a place. I even requested a trailer be placed on my home. That was in october. I have not heard from them. And then for energy to come up with some foolishness that you have to put in what . To get power . Why have them call for help to put the power back on the lines, like parrish avenue. What is wrong with you . The citizens want to come back, but what are you doing . Sitting on your behind. I am tired. I am hurt. I am hurt at this representative who submitted legislation to the state letting the state take over the School System where our citizens are suffering in new orleans. Where was your common sense . We are suffering. Dont take that lightly. I want the assistance i am supposed to get. I have not gotten it yet. I have to get out of the hotel room by the third. I have been waiting on the trailer since october. The measurements have not been taken. It is unfair. Mr. Mayor, demand a Public Service call for help. Those people in those communities did not mind helping one another, just like here. You need help. You cannot do it by yourself. C. Ray nagin reverend, if you could, lets get fema to help you. If you could come on the side. You are a little fired up right now. I trust, he is a reverend. It will be all right. Next question please. Good evening i am not a reverend, but i am fired up because you said all of all of the debris hauling is going out to people from new york, chicago, california. Anytime a man bring a truck from that far, you know there is money involved. We as local people did not get any of that. It is a doggone shame that a man lives in the city of new orleans , house is paid for, we dont get nothing. That is a shame. C. Ray nagin i agree. I will get you with Don Hutchinson and see if we can help. Another thing i want to say, all of the contracts in november, they went out to the politicians friends, cousins, state representatives, city council people. That is not right. [applause] at a labor rally in baton rouge, she asked me to have a truck that loads from the rear, if i had the contract, i couldve had that truck, it did not matter. We need the contracts. It is not right. You are talking about new orleans coming back, my house is paid for. If we live like this, it is not right. C. Ray nagin lets see if we can do to help. I will get you with Don Hutchinson. We have been able to help some businesses. Maam. Good afternoon, i have a home in algiers. I have lost food. Fema put us in apartments with no refrigerators. Another thing, bring people back to new orleans. Where will the kids go to school . 90 of new orleans has kids. On Algiers Point there is a school open in good condition, they fired 30 teachers at one of the toprated schools here. They asked me to reregister a 10yearold adopted child. She is going to stay in jefferson parish. Rta drivers are driving at will. I got picked up after two hours on a bus. She was driving slowly and not picking up passengers. Lastly, the people coming in from baton rouge on the bus is terrible. They need to leave them in baton rouge. This morning i got off of the bus, i had to step over bags of clothing that they just throw from canal street all the way to tulane. It is a disgrace. Our future is our children, if they do not open the new orleans School System it will be a disaster. No one will get Social Security past 2006. C. Ray nagin thank you. It is my understanding the School System is starting to open up some schools. Five days from 10 00 until 2 00. C. Ray nagin all right. Thank you. I was here before and at the last meeting. I was instructed to talk to the derailment, i have never heard back. In the meantime, i was waiting on him to get a job, i bought a truck. Explain to me about those zones. The reason i am saying this is i pick up the debris in front of my house. Theres microwaves, dishwashers, im in my house, picking up my washer and dryer. A gentleman pulled up and said you are in the wrong district. He said, this is my zone. I said yes, this is my house. The fact is, that was my washer. I am going to make the money off of it, not him. Explain to me hi go across the street from where i live, it is a zone. Somebody from mississippi. Somebody from maryland, somebody from washington dc, because i am in their zone that is federal property, they go to jail. Enough is enough. Who sold new orleans . When did this happen . Where did the zones come from . How can Big Companies come in, big trucks come in and i have microwaves and dishwashers piled up to the ceiling. I lost everything. I am saying, i cant pick up a washing machine, if i pick it up, i go to jail. I have to pay a license to the city to pick up trash . Who gave them permission to zone off new orleans . No one can explain it to me. Thank you for your question. C. Ray nagin are you ready . The debris pickup is basically being managed through federal contracts that come through the core of engineers. This is my understanding. I believe, dont quote me on this, there were four or five major contracts left. As they were left, they divided the city up into zones. I think there are four zones. Each contractor was given the responsibility for the pickup of the debris in that particular zone. I think that is what you are running into. There is no scenario that i can think of where if you are picking up debris, you would go to jail for violating a zone. I laughed at him. I called the police for him. What i am saying is, how in the world can you tell me you have a zone. C. Ray nagin let me make sure you understand the situation that were in. The city has no revenue. We are reduced to begging for loans from the federal government, and chase bank, all of the money that is being used to clean up the city is being controlled at a whole other level. All we can do is say we want this lady to participate. We are having some success, we dont have other success. That is what is happening. That is how the zone thing happened. [indiscernible] c. Ray nagin i wish i could pay you to do the work. You are not hearing me. They are getting half of what i make. I get half of that. C. Ray nagin it is a little deeper. What can we do to help . I should be able to go anywhere. C. Ray nagin dawn, can you help her get through the bureaucracy of the debris cleanup. She knows what she is talking about. My name is k fallon, i would like to thank you and the members of the council that are here today for all of your efforts. At times it seems like a thankless job. These are difficult times and i am proud of everyone that is works for the city and us. I am hoping you can help me with my problems, they are minor compared to others. My house did not flood. Our neighborhood where i have been living for a number of years, the crime there is bad. I am not getting a lot of help from the police. There are people that have moved into dilapidated houses in my neighborhood. These are people who are not working. They are drunk in the morning, at night. Theyre selling drugs in front of my house. I have called the police. I have been referred to different sergeants in the department to call. I have called them, i have left my name, number. I have gotten no response. One night last week a group of these guys living in this one night last week a group are having a major party with a bonfire. They were shooting off firecrackers, bottle rockets, this was before the rain. I called the police, they said they will let someone know to driveby. I waited, nothing happened. The other issue is trash, there is a ton in our neighborhood not getting picked up. It is really, really bad. The marigny triangle. I have called police, left messages, and not getting a response. The only response i got was, oh, how do you know they are selling drugs . When you look at your front door and see someone selling crack, it is obvious. C. Ray nagin get this young lady your address so they can get that to the police chief. We will get action going. Thank you. Go ahead. Good afternoon, my house is on mandeville street. We have a unique problem because as you said earlier, if your home is in the flood zone and you have 50 or more damage you have to raise your home. As you may know, most of the homes are on slabs. The 30,000 that fema is allotting is not enough. It is simply a drop in the bucket. Our only hope seems to be having our damages estimated at below 50 , which is becoming a logistical nightmare. Even with proof, i myself have been to the permit office four times. I have gone with everything they have asked for, pictures, estimates, everything to prove my damage is not above 50 . At one time i checked and they said they put it below, when i checked again they put it back above. Most people in the area are on average between 51 and 55 estimated damage. That means we will have to elevate our structures. We are also being told if we do not do this, we cannot get insurance. I have not found any law on the books, the only thing i have found says that if you have four or more claims, that exceed 5,000, then, and only then can you be denied coverage. If we could get some clarity on that, maybe some help about these, a lot of it is petty. People can very easily get below that. We have elderly people, raising their houses is not an option. [applause] thank you for your question. C. Ray nagin your question deals with the process of appealing the 51 damage . Of that, and where we can find a law that states if we do not, if we have had the situations i spoke about earlier, that we will be denied coverage. Every house there was built in the early 1900s to the mid1950s. C. Ray nagin i will let greg answer that. Greg on the fema thing, that is not a city thing. That is the federal Flood Insurance act of 1975, anything built after 1975 to get Flood Insurance, the federal government mandated that all cities had to buy into the program and say you had to build the flood elevation. The law is that 1975 act. That said, when it comes to 50 , it is more of as the mayor stated, it is more of an option to help you do what you need to do. What i mean is, if you are over 50 and thereby are below flood elevation, it is a good time with fema here they can match that up to 30,000 to raise that or 28,000. For a slab house, 30,000 is a drop in the bucket. That 30,000, i have a slab house, i would spend more than my house is worth to raise it. That is not feasible. I am not wealthy, most people are working class. Maybe we need to look at some other standards. Perhaps we could look at whether or not your structure is sound. Whether or not your foundation is good. We have people in those situations. The fact that they have to gut their houses, we are not talking about people who voluntarily wanted to remodel, this is not what this is. Maybe we should look at it from another angle to help people get below that. Even with the raising, people have 10 feet of water. That would not have helped. Greg i think we can help. We are not the ones arbitrarily deciding that percentage. That comes down to the foundation and the formulas that fema gives us. If you are in that gray zone, and in your case, if the city can supports the citizen, we will. What we will do this week, if youre on that cusp, if you think there is a mistake, we will allow you to send that in a feedback page. We will have something in the same section where you can internally appeal that. We can take a second look. It is about the reality of what happened. It is not an arbitrary decision. Can i say one more thing . We have a lot of elderly people that are not well versed in the internet. Some dont even have it. They cannot get this information. Greg you can also call or fax. They dont have phone service. Is there something in the neighborhood they could read . Something practical. Greg i get it. C. Ray nagin he tried to put it in city hall, we will come out to the community and see we can get it to more people. Thank you. Next question. How are you doing . First thing, a couple of comments, for you, youre doing a good job. The word on the street, that man stayed with us, when he did not have to. Come on now, get with it, whats wrong uncle sam, are you drunk . Come on, you need to go to rehab, brother. You need a spanking. Your people need you. Come on with the nation. Now that i have that out of the way. [laughter] im a poet. My question is for my brother, asides the storm, i lost two brothers a year ago. My mom was born here. I am trying to get my family together. My brother is a painter, i cant get them here if we dont have anything to go on. He didnt speak spanish so he was unable to work. I have i need work for my brother and family, but i could bring my family back together. My grandfather laid his grounds here. C. Ray nagin are you are looking for work . Im looking for my brother. C. Ray nagin we are helping people find work. I am a local attorney, and a young businessman here. I appreciate you going to different cities and making the rest of the country aware of the situation. You need to do that all of the time. The rest of the country has forgotten us. You need to keep letting people know our situation. [applause] another thing i want to say is the people that are back here like me and other young businessman and attorneys, how long can we stay . No people, no business. We need people that. We have mortgages coming up, everyone will be dealing with mortgage companies, we need help. Had we bring people back . When he trailers, a electricity. We need to tell the people from out of state, you can come back. Do we have to wait for fema to bring trailers . Can we get the state to provide money to private Trailer Companies to put trailers up right now, and have fema reimburse the state. We need to do that now. We cannot wait. As far as energy, you guys are in trouble, and you declared bankruptcy, we need power. No good are trailers without power. If i cannot do my job, i get replaced. If energy cannot do the job, we need other Power Companies from the country to come down here and get the job done. [applause] if we can have mardi gras, while the people of new orleans they cant come back are stuck in houston, dallas, and new york city, how can we have mardi gras . The people of new orleans can not even come home. [applause] eight days of tourism is great, we dont have housing for the people of new orleans but we have housing for tourists . Come on. Lets speak up for the people of new orleans. They are our people. When they come back they bring revenue every day for the rest of their lives. Not eight days for mardi gras. I love my girl. Gras. Ove mardi we will get back to that again, but right not right now. [applause] c. Ray nagin thank you. We will see a mistake and help with trailers. Mardi gras is a whole mother other discussion. Yes maam. My name is loretto brown. Pull that microphone down. I no longer have a house because it was under 10 feet of water. Seven feet of standing water. The house is totally gone. I am here today because they called my husband back to work. He is in the law enforcement. He works for the government he is a deputy sheriff. When we got here they told him he would have housing. When we got here, had nowhere for his family. We took it upon ourselves to find a hotel. We found a hotel, paid for it out of her pocket. Out of our pocket. What i had to do initially was called fema and asked them for more money. They said i had to write a letter, i did that. I applied for a loan. I thought it was a blessing that i got a loan. It looks like it is a nightmare. They said that Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst things that could happen to us. I think it is hurricane fema thats got me. When i called fema, they told me that i could no longer get assistance because i was approved for a loan. Im like, i was approved for a loan, thats a good thing, i get money at a low rate. Now that i am approved for that loan, fema will no longer assist me with anything. Now we have bills coming up. The mortgage wants their money. My question is to fema, why once you are approved for a loan, fema can no longer help. Its like they are putting you to decide. You are in more debt than you are already in. And we dont have anything else to do for you. C. Ray nagin that is the first time ive heard that. So you get an sba loan and that triggered that . Exactly. They approved as for 98,000. I told them the Flood Insurance was supposed to cover 70,000. The more money i get, the less the loan is, and it is not benefiting me. The sba loan is supposed to be for rebuilding. How do i survive . I have no money to survive. C. Ray nagin lets see we can get an answer from fema. Greg we will have candy talk to you oneonone. There must be a misunderstanding. Just because you have your loan approved does not mean that fema cut you off from temporary housing. I called, my husband called, they told us both the same thing. We are going to have candy talk to you. We want to make the statement that we realize your loan has been approved, you still have to do the work to repair the house and you need a place to stay. If you have been receiving rental assistance. I got one rental assistance, i called back and they said they could no longer help. Greg as long as you took that 2350 a and used it to rental place, we know that you can continue to need to rent a place for repairs, yes, you can still receive Housing Assistance from fema until you get alone in your hand and make repairs. Can i also say, i was one of the unfortunate people that got stuck in the convention center. I have already been through enough, i do not need fema to put me through more. I need some help. Please. If you step over there, she can speak with you. Hi, im dana, i was in houston, texas, during the time and whenead, and i met two twin ladies from the charles. Do you know this ladies . I know you do. I dont think you are responsible for katrina, i think you are responsible for us. I had a place in algiers. I have been formally evicted. I paid my rent, did what i was supposed to do and rent was refused for november. I am relying on you. I know all of this is state level, federal level, and all other levels. I dont have them. I voted for you to represent me on a local level. I dont know where else to go. I dont know what else to do. 24 hours after today my family will be at a hotel to be displaced after you said, i am holding you responsible to come back to what was not right at all. I want to know, my question is to you, that is one of my situations. Secondly, i am a homeowner. My home is in an area that seems to be have to be forgotten. I understand there is a process. Everything has a process. My problem is, when will this catastrophe going to be reclassified, because it was not a flood due to water from nature. It was due to the breach of the levees which would be covered by my homeowners, how do we get this reclassified . I know that there is something in place. That was probably due to you the councilmember, you need a crew. Everything is referred to you. Im just saying. Bring your question to a close. Thank you. My question is, i know you put something in place for the people that are not here. There is nothing in place for the people here being price gouged. That is for people they cannot contact. They have to give them a certain amount of time. I do not know what to do. I am on the street in 24 hours. I dont know if the judge owned property, but she was trying to find ways to make the landlord correct. I dont care how much proof you brought. C. Ray nagin let me see if i can try and answer some of the things you brought up. As far as rent gouging, we are getting more complaints of that. Being part of the powers of the mayor is basically to enforce the current laws are on the books. We are trying to use everything in our power legally to see what we can and cannot do. We may need some new laws. Exactly. Berkeley, california, has the landlord tenant association. Please, refer to somebody to protect us that we can come home. We come home. There is a nowhere to go. That doesnt make sense to be homeless. C. Ray nagin i agree. We dont want to be homeless. I am. Effectively today. 24 hours to move. And displace my child that has a learning disability. Moved her to another school or another school where she has been failing since katrina. Now i have to displace my three kids one more time. I have been here doing my best to be here so this city could have revenue, so we could be where we once were, everyone is segregated. I dont want to take up any more of your time, i want an answer. I dont want to spend my wheels no more. Myi dont want to spin wheels no more. C. Ray nagin lets see if we can get you, if you are really getting kicked out tomorrow, lets you we can get fema to help you to find a comparable place to live. Hopefully we can do it in the same area. Lets see what we can work out. We will see what we can do to help. Yes maam. Good evening. Get closer to the microphone. Good evening, i am a homeowner of a double house on the corner. My concern is that you do not forget about the lower ninth ward. Im across from a baseball field. A lot of things have been taken away from the ninth ward that they have forgotten. That is my biggest concern. We are not forgotten. That we will continue to go on and be strong. The media has always stated that we were poor. Yes, i work two jobs. I have bought my house, it was not given to me by inherent in inheritance. It was not awarded to me through divorce. I am saying yes, i am working hard to keep my property. I just paid five notes on my house because of everything that has been going on. When are we going to get down there to do it we have to do, how long will it take to do it . Yes, i am fully insured. Yes, i have insurance, it is not enough, it is not your fault. It is my fault, but what will happen to us . Could you answer that . C. Ray nagin yes maam. As you know december 1, which is thursday, we have fully opened up the ninth ward to full access. You live in the holy cross area . Right across the street from holy cross baseball field. C. Ray nagin that area will be on a faster track because the water got out there the quickest. You should be able to get utility services, quicker than anyone else and start the rehab process in the ninth ward. Not only that, but before the storm, my job had a mandatory stayover. I have been here to the whole through the whole ordeal. My job for me up in a place to live. That is fine and dandy. I went to my neighbors and spoke to them, i was finding out who is staying. I have been back there too got my house. I have talked to my neighbors and finding out who is rebuilding. In three areas only have four rental properties, one of them is mine, the other three they are all returning, people are willing to return. People are willing to do what we have to do. Please do not forget about us. Do we have to raise our houses . We are in a be zone we are in zone. C. Ray nagin are you if you are at or above the floodplain, you do not have to. Thank you very much. Please dont forget. C. Ray nagin thank you. Good evening, mr. Mayor. My name is barbara johnson, i am representing my 87yearold motherinlaw who is a resident of a lower ninth ward. She is on the florida side. We have had someone go into look at her property. We have a house , which used to be across the street, which made itself into a raft and is now on her car and carport. As i said, i am representing her because she cannot come here. She has been displaced to alexandria, louisiana. I heard you in your opening remarks make the statement that we should make intelligent decisions. We are just about there. We are of the decision where we either say buy me out. She is too old for a loan. We are at the point i heard you make a statement about, if you have 50 or more damage, according to the website, she does have 86. 63 damage. It is gone. My question to you today is will the corps of engineers may contact with residents . Or should the residents make contact with the corps of engineers . If so, with whom . What number . What is the process . What is the procedure . What is the timeframe . C. Ray nagin individuals can contact the corps of engineers. It depends on your decision. If your decision is to rebuild. Not going to rebuild. C. Ray nagin then you are leaning toward you want your home demolished. Or you want a buyout. The demolishing part, we can help with. We can put in a request to the corps of engineers to go in and demolish it. Last time i talked to them this , was the last information, they would do that at no charge to the citizen. If the request came from the city. Wait a minute. Let me deal with this question. If you are making a request saying you want your home demolished, we will take it from there. You can write us a letter, you can go on the website if you have access. You can fax. We will get it to the corps of engineers. As it relates to getting the fair market value for your home, that is different. There is a bill that congressman baker is almost at the point of passing in congress that will allow for that particular process. I would Pay Attention to that bill. As soon as it is passed, there will be an authority that will be in power to come in and by your homes at prekatrina assessed value. Can you tell me when . C. Ray nagin it is working through congress now. It should be back in session within the next week or two. Question we keep tabs on your website. We keep tabs on your website. C. Ray nagin there is a congressional website to keep you uptodate as that bill is moving forward. That is the baker bill . C. Ray nagin it is called the Louisiana Redevelopment Authority act. Yes, maam. Were going to put your mic down. The other one. Thank you. My name is celeste robinson. I reside on industry street in the eighth ward. I was raised in the seventh. C. Ray nagin take your time. If you could speak into the microphone. I know it is difficult. Just take your time. My mother is almost 89. This is killing her. We have been waiting for a trailer. I have gotten calls from trailer people. Ive talked to fema, gone up to st. Charles avenue. We need fema in our area of town. Not way up on st. Charles. We need people directly to deal with. I even had three firemen looking for my mother, do you have a power source . We have a generator. No trailer. By the grace of god, a friend of the west bank was staying there. Otherwise, homeless. I have eight to 10 feet in my house. I would love to go back home. Just give us light. God said let there be light. C. Ray nagin which area of the city . The best way i speak is through my poetry. I wrote this when i was in oakland, california. The big easy always sleazy forever looted politicians looming for self gain wait and see who remains so unprotected always neglected a city defaced a different place. Similar to atlantis a city vanished a city divided by color slighted in danger of toppling by a hit so hard forever scarred. Still shifting blame. On the many names beware of the outside storms. 30 seconds please thank you. Thank you. [applause] my name is david novak. I am a homeowner in uptown. I have about four feet of water. It has been rough. I have a lot of questions. Number one, the presence of National Guard. What is the plan for the scale down . Can we extend the curfew past 2 00 a. M. . I know the revenue is a problem. I do believe they still collect sales tax. What is the election schedule going to be . Third, i know mr. Nagin, i met you at the aflcio labor meeting. I am wondering where is the Service Employees union. Are we going to bring them in here you go the dnc is going to have their spring 2006 meeting, but they had to make some im trying to think of the word some concessions, because the sheraton is the only hotel that can host that, but are not union. You are talking about jobs that are paying 10 to 15 an hour. Are they going to be paying that in two to three years . We need to have the unions in here. We need to make sure they get the pay they deserve. Being a minimum wages city is not going to work anymore for me and the other people around here. [applause] also, reading about the investigations, levee breaches, how there is supposed to be 17 foot pilings and only 10 foot pilings. I think it is time we get the fbi task force down here. Right now i dont have hot water. I dont have heat. I have only two pairs of clothing to wear out. Id like to go out to the end go out to the angle of state prison in a couple of years from now and see the people that are responsible for this levee breach failure. 30 seconds. Thats all i have for you. I want to thank you though are doing this. C. Ray nagin you got five questions in two minutes. Let me go down the list. The first question about the National Guard in their presence. How long will it be here . We have supplemented 1500 officers, about 2025 National Guard members. They are patrolling in the areas that have the least amount of population. They are committed to staying here for the duration until we can get the city repopulated. Youll see them start to downsize, as we upsize, stabilize the new Orleans Police department. The 2 00 a. M. Curfew is in effect right now. It has been in effect for the past month or so. We started out with an 8 00 p. M. , midnight, 2 00. The reason is twofold, way too many areas in the city that are dark at night. They dont have light. The second issue is i am still not totally convinced that our police force is at the level of stabilization to handle 24 hours. As soon as we get them stabilize as to where they are going to live when the cruise ships pass, then we will move into the normal mode of operations for the city, and we may relax that over certain special holidays as we go forward. The election cycle. Your guess is as good as mine. The secretary of state is expected to make an announcement this friday. If he and the governor are in sync, they can delay it, put it forward. The two days i have heard that they are considering delaying it is sometime in april, and maybe as late as september to coincide with the congressional elections. So that is what i know on the election cycle. As far as the unions are concerned, the unions are around. They have been doing some meetings. I am going to get with the council and hopefully we will sit down and call for a meeting of all the Union Leaders and get a sense for where they are and how we can Work Together to make sure that when all the jobs are created, longterm jobs, they have the good pay rates, sustainable, and also have benefits that are normally associated with union jobs. As far as the levees are concerned, the levees are going to be at the top of everybodys mind going forward. The fbi is also looking at that. The District Attorney has written a letter to request a formal investigation on the levee and what happened. Hopefully, we will come up with a better system for building levees. That is something the state are struggling with. Those are your five topics. As far as the unions, the state does not have favorable laws at all for workers. If the city council has to take the lead on that, by all means go through with it. Look at chicago. You want to get construction guys on the roads, they are all unions. You got people serving tables, they are all union. Bagging groceries, unions. To me the Legislature Said that unions were needed. Now you see all these fema contractors, and nonunion. The sheraton running dnc convention, nonunion. C. Ray nagin we got your point, man. Thats more appropriate at the state level. This is a right to work state. If youre going to attack it, attack it at the state level. The District Attorneys office is conducting its own investigation and determining whether a grand jury is in order based upon an examination of the initial reports done by various engineers. We are determining whether a grand jury investigation is in order, whether state law has in fact been violated. That would be independent and separate from anything done by the u. S. Attorneys office. C. Ray nagin all right. Next. My name is mickey daniels. I am from new orleans. Fourth generation in portlands. In new orleans. My grandfather started a business here in 1927, my father in 1954. My brother and i started taking steps to become state licensed contractors. Every step has cost money. Has cost time. In fact, halloween day, we went to baton rouge and filled out the paperwork with the Louisiana State board of revenue, contracting board. We dont plan on having employees. We are small. They will not give us a license without workmens comp. Insurance. As the owner of a company you , cannot be covered by your own workmens comp. Insurance. The labor board does not require us. According to the state board of they will not license us without it. Mississippi is not required to have workmens comp. Insurance, but the license is reciprocal. There are people working in my city from mississippi, arkansas, texas, that arent required to follow the same guidelines. Lwcc is the state owned workmens comp. Insurance company wanted to thousand dollars for a new business. After katrina, they want 10,000 up front, no payments, no financing, to even talk to us about giving us workmens comp. I need some help. C. Ray nagin this is that the state level . Wow. Ill tell you what, man, im not sure how we can help you. Come on the side and lets talk about this. If you are experiencing this, im sure there are other new orleans businesses going to this. Im not sure why the state is doing this, but we will see if we can find out and get some relief. Next up. Good evening, everyone. Im a resident of the lower ninth ward. Florida avenue. My husband is a city employee. We were one of the evacuees who left. We were outside living in a van, me, my husband, my three kids. We had to come back. Where were we going to go . There was no housing anywhere. We come back here. You slam the door in our faces. We go to the hotels, they are acting nasty with you. They dont want you there. They are only taking you because they get fema funds. My husband has been employed with the city for six years. He made a fiveyear anniversary and you refused to pay him knowing that my child had kawasakis disease. He had to miss work. He brought in paperwork. That was not good enough. I imagine somebody doing that to your manhood. You come back to work for the city. You still dedicate yourself with your children in a hotel, and then recommended to a hotel that has no clean water. No heating. You goingtand you go to give me a voucher to go a landlord who charges 4000. 6. 40 an hour, you want to talk about disaster pay . You know youre going to cut it all. When you put trade the people of when you portray the people of new orleans as poor, its your fault. You dont want to raise the minimum wages. That money goes out, so what about us in new orleans . I dont blame anyone for not coming back here. Look at my husband standing back there. He is a man, not a boy. Hes at work and they are telling him we dont have anywhere feet deep. Anywhere to eat. You have to go to the bathroom . Call your supervisor. Its not right. As far as my representatives in the ninth ward, i applaud you miss willis, and wherever she is. Its like everybody that is poor , if it wasnt for us poor, under a pay people for us poor, underpaid people, you would not have a new orleans, you understand . Children standing in the rain, shivering, marching in your parade. [indiscernible] my children have not been to school at all since katrina. You are trying to close that down. What else you going to do . How far down you want us to go . Im back to sleep im back sleeping in a van. My husband want to get up and go to work, while yall on a boat. Me she city worker tell works in city hall. Got me an apartment imagine what me and my husband feel like. When you driving tractors, you take over for the supervisor when you need time off. My black people, i am very ashamed. Thank you. C. Ray nagin before you go and leave, why dont you at least allow us an opportunity to see if we can make the situation better, ok . If you could, come on the side and let us talk to you. I understand your frustration. You have been through hell and back. Give us an opportunity to make it better, ok . Hold on one second. Christie can take your information as well as his lady as well as this lady right here in the second row. Mr. Mayor, before you move on, that me say that there are some of us sitting up. Who are on record supporting increasing minimum wage. There are some of us who went forward and had a referendum supporting. I am on record. I am on record for supporting a minimum wage. I also have a father who retired from the city at less than seven dollars an hour, whose mothers insurance to take care of my handicap sister. This aint about politics to me. Maybe some people playing politics. This is about life for me. This is as real for some of us as everybody else. I dont like being triple jumped i dont like being tripled up in the house either. I did not like seeing my brother, my sisters, my family members. Ive tried to put on a happy face of thanksgiving. Some people can fake like it was a good one. It wasnt a good one for me. I understand. Let me say this. I aint never going to back off. If you aint been watching, been listening, but you aint lumping me in with everybody else. [applause] dont vote for me if you dont like me. You can turn the other microphone down. That one. Good afternoon. I am in new orleans resident. We can barely hear you. My Damage Assessment states that my property is 54. 6 damage. The area respected was exterior only. My house is not wood. Its brick. I have a 500 square foot garage, and my son, who was 13 years old, not a piece missing. My roof is not damaged at all. My structure is fine. Now how i come about 55. 64 Damage Assessment, yes, my house is one of the houses that was built like the rest of them there and 1962, still standing, never been flooded. Everybody that lives in my neighborhood been living there since hurricane betsy come to hear, and still standing, nobodys house got flooded. In 1965, when betsy came through here, the People Living back there now 40 years said they were out of power seven days. Now we still dont have lights, and i know that because of went down there saturday. I want to know, when is they going to put some lights back there. Why i got to raise my house for feet off the ground when the people uptown got 67 feet of water in my house. New orleans east got some of the best drainage. We dont flood. We dont flood down there. Mr. Fema, mr. Army corps, yes, i am a federal employee that works up the street at the va hospital that come january may not have a job because of the incompetence and irresponsibility of the army corps of engineers who raised my house. Ive got a house down in new [indiscernible] because somebody broke my window, broke the sliding glass door, pulled it off the hinges, and went in my property and stole my tv out of my house. You understand what im saying . All this come back to new orleans. You know how much i pay for rent . 875. My house note aint that much. I watched this every week. It comes on tv. Radio beforeon the i go anywhere. Got it on my car radio listening. Aint nobody doing nothing. Raise the house. Raise the house. Im not raising my house 10 feet up in the air. I dont live on the beach. I dont live in florida. I dont live in mississippi. I live in new orleans. Biloxi, ito live in would do that in the beginning. Im not raising my house, mr. Mr. Fema. Mr. Army corps of engineers. You can say what ever you want, but i know one thing. You can get somebody elses house, but you wont get mine. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Next up. My name is maxine allen webster. Im here to ask a question because i had a business that was drawing in very good revenues and working for the city. I have clients that were on park island. I had people all over the city of new orleans did when katrina moved everybody out, that was my business gone. I consulted with a person out of state, got another business going, and its all in the process of rebuilding new orleans, because i am a very concerned citizen here, but i would like to know what are the opportunities for the entrepreneurs that are here . I built the business up, and now i have first of all, the sba turned me down for the loan. Theyre not seeing too many outside loans now. I what to be a thorn in mr. I want to be a thorn in mr. Hutchinson side. I have been trying to get in touch with him for two months now. I was one of the people that did not want to leave. I stayed out in kanner from the very beginning, when they first of the letting people back in here, and i am not going anywhere, but i do want to know what kind of opportunities we have . I have a business plan, my plan includes training people, number one, and employing people to work for the company, and in the rebuilding process of new orleans, but i need to get someone who can really direct me to what is going on. I cant get a foothold on who to talk to about rebuilding. I have my plan. I have everything. I have all my equipment in place. I had subcontractors that are ready to go. When i went to the ecc, they referred me to mr. Hutchinson. I cant get him. C. Ray nagin you have him today. Come on the side and we will hook the two of you together. Thank you for your question. C. Ray nagin yes, sir. Come on up. Mr. Nagin, i have talked to you before. You know me as the latter man. The ladder me as man. I come before you today is not the ladder man, but the construction worker. Sunday night i was out talking to my neighbors. The fema inspectors at my place was not livable. I got half of that 2300 relocation fee. Im out there talking to a camper down there and his wife down below me, and they said, Somebody Just ran into your apartment. I turned around and i saw this guy going my apartment. 335 dauphin street. I run up the steps and they yelled up at me that he ran down the hallway. I run down the hallway yelling, who is in my apartment . That was a nice way to put it. Now the landlord now im getting evicted because im the only tenant there that was there before the storm. He has all new tenants there. He wants to jack the rent up. I know thats the reason. I got until sunday to get out, now what do i do . What i do . Im one of the best you got out here. Im the ladder man. Some of you all have seen me. Ive been homeless in the city before. It aint fun. I dont have 2000 to go rent another apartment. What i do . C. Ray nagin you know, a couple of people have brought up this whole issue of the rents going up. The only thing i can tell you is that we are trying to enforce the laws that are on the books. We need to strengthen laws so we can have more teeth and Enforcement Powers to help this type of situation. We dont have them today. We dont have them today. So the only thing i can tell you to do is try and make sure that as they are going to the eviction process that they are following all the rules. There is a certain procedure they need to go through. They need to go through to make sure that if they miss anything, then you have rights to stand up to stay in that property. If not, we can get your information and we can try to talk to the state or see if theres anything we can do to help you, but right now the current laws allow the landlords to do what theyre doing. Its not right, but it is the current laws. I appealed my fema registration yesterday. You have a fema man here i can speak with . He is on the side. C. Ray nagin if you can talk to fema, maybe fema, maybe fema can help you with temporary housing, but other than that there is not a lot we can do with the landlord. It is the gentleman in the blue over alongside the wall. If the fema representative could raise his hand. Thank you. C. Ray nagin yes, maam. You can put that microphone down. The other one. Thank you. Good afternoon. Closer to the microphone for me. My name is Verna Williams joseph. This is my uncle. Before Hurricane Katrina, both of us were business owners, and he is still doing contract work now. We have been having a hard time now. Out here picking up the goods. Michael went to the dump to dump his white goods and they told him he couldnt. He can doubt but he will be paid. The contract that he was something under there was no more of that person. Myself, invested in 278 yard trailers the 18 wheelers. I cannot go out, because when they give me a zone, the zones dont have trash on it. When i get on his own, they have these big guys coming over telling me to get off. I might be short, but i dont leave. Worke going to set here in zone together. We want to know what you can do for us to help us echo we have the trailers loaded up, but we cant dump it. Ray nagin so you have the zone trailers is like 78 yards. That is long. When we get out there, we cannot make a load. If we going to another zone, the. Ick me out i can today to find out what we can do. We are here from the lower ninth why do we have to go under . The people make money from a town in the they leave . C. Ray nagin so your question is . All of the equipment is certified and we are still not on the street. You are looking to move to a different zone . Know, were looking for work. We are not doing anything. C. Ray nagin ive tried to make sure i understand what you challenges. You have been authorized to do work in a certain on . That zone does not have enough work to go to the dump and get paid properly . Right. C. Ray nagin you are looking to change that . Yes. We are looking to get paid for the goods already loaded on the truck. C. Ray nagin once you go to the dump site, they are saying youre not authorized to pick up white goods in that zone . Good evening, mr. Mayor. Ive been back in the city since october 24. Ive been living in the ninth ward for over 40 years. Ive been in business what would have been 21 years. I came back and invested in a truck and trailer. Ive been getting the runaround ever since. Ive worked a week out of this month. The first time, they told me my trailer did not fit the qualification. The next time, they told me i had to have a 350 truck. The only thing they said they would allow on the dump. I finally got certified, then my truck got certified by ecc. So i started working and i worked about four days, then they went into a meeting, ecc. Somehow they got separated and somebody broke the contract. I also was a subcontractor with them. The refrigerators that i started from, i started from the ninth ward, i came to franklin to claiborne. Me donting, they told come back the next morning, because they were having some discussion between them. That a guyd on their had wrote me up for for that thursday. Today to get it off of my trailer and they told buthat you can get it off, what you have to do is you have to take it back there in the back and take off yourself. Then youre going to have to take the trailer back to ecc and get certified again. I said why is this a . Be on ayou are going to different contract now. It has to be recertified again. Sitting on just sitting loaded with refrigerators that me and my son picked up, because they claim the equipment they had was too big to go into the French Quarter to operate. I went in there and i was them to get in there and i did no damage. Now my trailer is sitting there and they say it has to be certified. I did not mind them telling me i had to be certified, but the certified by the same people who already certified my truck. C. Ray nagin part of the runaround that local companies have been getting we are going to pull you guys on the side. The more i hear these complaints, the more it is starting to become clear to me that we are going to have to create some files and start to document the types of problems we are having so that we can start to take this to the next level. So that we can push this. If you can pull on the side and we will have him take information. We are going to see if we can push this forward. We have to document this and come with evidence, so that we can push this harder. One of the things and i saw the debris. It was all packed up, stacked up, piled up and picked up. Just sitting there on a trailer ready to be dumped. He did what he was supposed to do. He was penalized for doing a good job. One of the things that maybe we , have professionals or engineers that monitor the contractors. Where the contractors have to submit reports to them. That is what they are doing in st. Bernards and other areas. That local community has someone assigned to the contractor that business person and government person can go to. Maybe that is an opportunity. Do you think you have somebody sure monitor to make because it seems like the more were pushing for local participation, the more people are starting to get pushed. Thank you sir. C. Ray nagin yes maam. Good evening. Im from time village. I had nine feet of water. If myying to find out how many feet . Or should be level . I havee process already started gutting out process. Everything is still soaking wet. The floors is still soaking wet. My son was to know. C. Ray nagin you need to try you are int where relation to the 100 year flood plan. Heavy go to city hall yet . No, i have been living in shreveport. My son is in the netherlands. He is a major in the air force. C. Ray nagin if he could be anywhere in the world. Ande can go on our website punch in your address, he will see it, it has instructions. It will tell you where you are in the floodplain and if you are above or below. You can take it from there. Thank you. Here, if youare like to visit the seventh floor in city hall, you can get the information. C. Ray nagin thank you so much. Next up. I have a problem coming back to the city because every time you do there was a problem finding a place to stay. My husband is here working, and he was fortunate to provide a trailer. Every time we need to do something we have to do Everything Else to even get a hold of that stop. I come down here every weekend in order to try to get Business Done to get my house up and running. I am not very appreciative of that right now. I dont have any help from fema. It makes you feel like you are the underdog because you do have insurance. You cant get anything else from them because of that. It is very aggravating. You cant get anything done. It is impossible. It is like i said, we were fortunate that we were in the hotel in the city and finally got a room on canal street. Every time you look around, you have to renew. Ive only been there two weeks. They say you have to do this, or do that, or renew this. I really want to come home. My job is here. I have no place to stay. I cant find a house, it is outrageous. My son was living at 500 a month in rent it now with the 700 80 or something 700 and 50 or something 750 dollars or something. You go to city hall they give you information to figure out what it is that you need to do. Unionville licensed electrician, why does it have to be from new orleans . What does what difference is a make what he comes from . He can go anywhere. What is the problem with that . Then, they want to charge you out of your eyeballs to come and give you an inspection at your home. Something is wrong. Thank you. Mayor nagin let me see if i can answer a couple of your questions. You talked about a lot of different things. I know. I could talk about 50 more and i still would not be at the end of the list. Mayor nagin you talked about the price gouging with rent. As far as a new orleans electrician, i think there is a law and the books that pretty much requires new orleans electricians to do the work which were running into a problem with that because there is not enough electricians to do all the work. Maybe in exemption of that particular law, which we will work on. What was her last point . Being able to have a place to stay. I have the property to put it on. I dont have any electricity, so my question was can be use a generator . Where is the trailer . It is not getting to me anytime soon. They called me back, we will contact you. They have never contacted me. I want to come home, i want to go back to work. I cant. Mayor nagin we would let you talk to the fema gentlemen. Mr. Mayor, one of the things we are hearing over and over again is people talk about the extended stay in hotels. We have a couple people here now that are at a hotel, but are being told they have to leave. Has fema extended the time for the reimbursement . If they have, why are people being put out . We have a family here today being put out, what time do they have, and what rights does that person have if they are set up for a temporary extended stay . I can answer the president s question about the time extensions. Fema has granted a time extension until december 15 with a look continue to pay for the hotel bills. After that time, fema is not evicting anyone. You can continue to stay in the hotel, you just have to pay the bill yourself. That is how it works. What i am hearing people say is that the folks who are in hotels right now, when it accepted the family to stay, it was for a limited. Of limited period of time. It let you in for seven nights and you need to check out because someone else has a reservation. That is the situation between the family, the individual, and hotel. Im sure they would love to keep people in longer but they have other folks coming in. Good evening, mr. Mayor. Most residents are coming back. I want to compliment you on the job you are doing. You did not know we would have this hurricane. I want to compliment you there. A lot of folks dont thank you, but i for one do. One of the things you mentioned was that 10,000 thats. Deaths. Also i would like to thank think out of the box. We have to sign a letter. We need for you to sign a letter now that the council took up. I actually got a trailer, and then going to the process. Somebody comes up up the trailer, somebody comes to the apartment, somebody comes in, somebody comes in and drops it in the hole. Then we dont have anyone to do the safety without having electrician. It has been sitting there for a whole month. People are tired of running back and forth. Everyone wants to come back home. We need for you to sign the letter to say if the have an electrician who is connecting the electricity, let that inspector be with the same department. Council had a meeting going on with a talk to a man who said this would not we dont need it. What is the hold up with improvements getting out to people back home . We need you to sign the letter now, mr. Mayor. Sign the letter. Mayor nagin that should be done. We will follow up to make sure that is in place. We already but the process, they basically said once you have your electricity to sign off on your trailer, it is over. Maybe we need to what electricity are you talking about . Mayor nagin it doesnt matter, as long as it is a licensed electrician we dont care where they come from. They just send in the report, and it is done. My trailer has been sitting there for one solid month. Go ahead, councilwoman. One second, please. The problem is, the electricians know that, the permits know that, but the contract is bringing up the trailers apparently they dont know it. They tell the citizens that you have to still go to safety and permits so that they can come up and inspect. The process gets longer, and longer. They also have contractors tell people you have to get your own electricians. That is not true either. The one installing the trailer is supposed to take care of the entire process. The citizen is not supposed to do anything, nor pay one penny. But that is not happening because these contractors are telling them something different. We need to figure something out, that is why we need the monitoring and the oversight so that whoever is doing it, everybody is following the same procedure. Thank you, councilwoman. In closing, i know you are doing regional cooperation. I know that will take place. On these trailers particularly, put that in place so that folks can move into their trailers. There been sitting up there for one solid month, as the young man who brought my trailer saying they dont know what the hangup is in new orleans. Why are they putting us through all these changes . We have been through enough changes. Mayor nagin thank you. [applause] mayor nagin the fema represented at once to make a comment. It wasnt too long ago the city did waive the requirement to have the Electrical Inspections done after the trailer was connected. We will make sure each and every one of the contractors employed to knows that. It sounds like the maybe some cases where that word has not got out yet. We will make sure that is not an obstacle. When i said that after december 15 a family, that the hotel bill wont be paid directly by fema, that the family pays for it, i need to add that if the family is eligible for the rental assistance we have given them, that is what they can use to pay for the hotel bill. Then continue after that, recognizing paying for a hotel room is a more expensive option. They can use the Housing Assistance money. Mayor nagin all right. Yes, maam. I will try to talk really fast because my two hours on the meter is over. I am a clinical social worker, i live in new orleans, my practice is in the one lens. R in new orleans. I live near the dental school. Even though i have a strong determination to stay in the city and help all of us heal from all the trauma and grief we are going through, and have been going through, i want to say that are so many obstacles. I appreciate you having these meetings. I was sitting him making a list of all the things i have gone through. I got information from fema that i wasnt going to be eligible for Housing Assistance because i had flooding insurance. Then another person said that wasnt accurate. I got misinformation all over the place. I spoke about transferring my business phone because i wanted to move into a different floor. They said they could hook up my phone service, but it would be in april. It will take until april for them to do that. I tried to get information, i am on a waiting list for a trailer. I applied in early october and first got a call that you are not eligible because you have Flood Insurance. All of this misinformation, i was told you need to get an information and electrician. You have to secure an appointmentfor an electrician to do work. It is such a difficult time, with so many obstacles. I looks to see if i had to raise my house, both are in flood zone a. The estimated damage was 30 to 60 . What does that mean . What should i do . If i had a question it would be is there any place that i could go to get guidance about how to solve all these problems . I have no idea. By contractor said i think you should just bulldoze it. They bring some people out that they dont bulldoze this house, it is a great house. I go to workshop where the guy says we will let issues for years with the mold. You need all of this stop. This is an individual citizen trying to be educated. Is there somebody that can guide me . [applause] mayor nagin uh, you know, unfortunately there is not. What you are dealing with is agencies through Different Levels of government. The federal government, state government, and the local government, and we are trying to put out as much information as we get. Then we put it out, but when we put information out, we have these other experts that come to the table and present counter views. It is causing an incredible amount of confusion. I dont know how to combat that other than take some peoples models up. We cant really do that, you have to figure out who you trust, and if you see that the city is putting out consistent information and that looks good to you, the net is the way you should go. If the state is putting up consistent information what i am learning in this particular situation is that everyone has an opinion, and that are more experts that we really need at this moment. It is creating a lot of confusion. We will try to get you as much Accurate Information as possible. You can try to double check it as much as you can. At the end of the day, you have to make some calls because there is no clear roadmap. Like i said, when i look at the website, its a 30 . Mayor nagin if you are a one and you are saying that, you are in good shape. I would interpret that to mean mayor nagin you dont have to raise your house. Once you are coded as being of above the floodplain all you are doing is being given an estimate of how much it will cost to fix your home. Can you get closer to the mike please . I am here to find out about this city. I applied to fema, and they agreed to help me. Then they sent an inspector two months later. The time when they allowed us to come, we were concerned about our wood floors. We threw out everything. We poured bleach, and a wet mattress. When they sent their inspector and caleld called me, i came back to the house, the first thing he brought up was that it was an abandoned house. Because he did not see any furniture. I said everything was here. I have to go to city hall because i lost a lot of things in the flood. Then, i did then i made an appeal, but i still dont know what is going to happen, they say they will lend me some money. It is three months and i will not get any help here or there. That is the problem. Mayor nagin from what i understand, you have applied to fema to inspect the damages and help you to restore your home. You also applied they told me i can apply to either of them. The sca told me i need to send a bunch of papers. Fema now, they say they came two months later and i took the contents out of the house to try and save my wood floors. That was the wrong thing to do. Mayor nagin the fema guys are saying they can help you. If you can move aside, we would get somebody to work with you. Thank you. Hi, how are you doing, mr. Mayor . Mayor nagin whos mike is that . Nbc . I have a Small Business here in new orleans. I am from the jefferson area and just about two years ago moved to new orleans. I want to commend you on everything you have done here. Summon night i cant even sleep because i want to be a part of helping you some nights i cant even sleep because i want to be a part of helping you. I can offer music stuff to you, whatever you have in the area. I am free. I have information that i can leave. I just want to thank you. Mayor nagin why dont you give your information to this lady right here. We will see if we can take advantage of your services. Hello. I lived on two main street dumain street. The water was right near my house. Mayor nagin this other mic it in the way. They need to lower it so it is not the first mic somebody is talking in. We need to not allow them to be attached. It has to be lower. Everybody is doing documentaries. Everybody wants to do a documentary. Thank you. Mayor nagin get as close as you can. My house had five feet of water in it. My question is, i received money from the city in 2002. My Flood Insurance is not enough to rebuild my house. My question is what do i do . You have to live in the house between 510 years. I dont have that money to pay back to the city. I need to know what i need to do. I am still waiting on a fema trailer. There are eight of us on top of each other. We have the property to put it on, but they told me it was coming, but it is still not here. Mayor nagin we will get you to talk to the fema people to see if we can find out where you are on the list as it relates to the he said you did not have enough Flood Insurance. Right. It is not enough to rebuild. The actual value, and the rebuilding cost, it is just not enough. Mayor nagin well we need to get your information. Maybe you can write us a letter. We will work with you as it relates to this. Thank you. If you can fill out on your questionnaire that information and give it to that young lady right there before you head over to the fema guy. Mayor nagin dont forget to talk to fema about your situation. Find out if there is any other support they can give you rebuilding your house. Howre you doing . I had three houses in the same area, all of them were flooded out. I came here to find out what your specific plans for the area as far as the rebuilding process . I was anticipating in the section eight program. I have houses i cannot live in, i want to rebuild. Right now, i dont know what to do. I dont know the plans for my specific area. I have over 50 damage in the house is already. Similar to her situation, i had enough coverage to cover the house and things like that, but the price that i paid, the amount that it will cost me to rebuild, i cant do it. Does the city have any plan as far as helping homeowners rebuild . Not only is the cost gone up, but Interest Rates are going up. Im halfway finished paying for my house. I have to start over from the beginning. I will finish by the time i am in my 50s, and that was part of my retirement money. Now i have to start all over. By the time i finished, i will be probably dead. Mayor nagin as far as plans, we plan to rebuild. You hear so many rumors, that is why i came here today. I live right by the canal. Three houses, they say they may buy us out. I dont know what to do. Mayor nagin as i started to say, it will be rebuilt. Do you have electricity . I have nothing. Mayor nagin so, Electrical Services should be coming to that area pretty soon. But i cant live there. Mayor nagin but that will help you as it comes to if you decide to rebuild will stop. Who can i talk to about raising the house, and things of that nature . How can i rebuild so i can move on . Mayor nagin if you have already raised the home, all you need to do is go on to our website and determined to make sure you are in the 100 year flood plain. The issue with the levees and whether they will be expanded, or if the corps of engineers will be purchasing some properties that is a possibility. You will have to talk to them about that. Why would i got to my house out if there was a possibility. I dont have that kind of money to just wait. Mayor nagin you have to find out from them if they plan to expand the levees footprint. That will help you to make the decision. If they are expanding, they will write you a check. If not, then you need to go through the process of figuring out how to rehab your house. And if you want to use some of the loan money out there, but that is not helping me. Mayor nagin i can only give you the facts as i know them today. Today, the issue is begotten of exactly what the corps of engineers is going to do other than build up the levees. I dont know if they will buy your home or anyone elses home. I know that is not answering your question. I dont even have a house, or a computer. Mayor nagin then you can go to the city hall, on the seventh floor, and they have all the information for you to access that information. You can also go to any library and use their computer. Thank you. Mayor nagin if you need somebody else to help you, we can have somebody meet you on the side. That is fine. Mayor nagin the young lady behind you may be able to. The gentleman over here will speak with you if you can step to the side. Howre you doing, mr. Mayor . Mayor nagin i am hanging in there. How was your vacation . Mayor nagin fine. Mine wasnt. I had to spend time trying to rebuild. Most of the houses, not most, 99. 9 of those houses are at least damaged 50 or better. Most people in pine village are just working people. Who will pay for it . I went through the mayberry flood, and the corps of engineers and all of that. That is only one question. My other question is after the hurricane, what kind of contract was awarded by the city . Now, there was a gentleman thats talking about prisoners. My understanding is that they are the trustees being paid 20 an hour. My other question is, what is the population that you represent at this present time. If you ask me a question one time in the past, if i was in your shoes, i would raise my salary at least 25 . I would make an executive order that my people that are nonclassified to receive the same thing to at least be able to help other people. I would not be able to help montenegro bay or jamaica at the present time. But mr. Mayor, we need your help. I need to rebuild, but i cannot afford that. I applied for a trailer, and still have not received that. Could you answer some of those questions . I appreciate that. It is the same thing in pine village. They are mostly working people. They cannot afford to pay the 60,000. I would have to raise my house seven feet that would mean i would have to have an escalator. That is unfair