So let me get this straight. The people who didn't have insurance will get a GRANT for $150,000 but the people who HAD insurance will get a SBA LOAN for about the same amount???? Someone really needs to explain this to me. I am not saying the people without insurance should not be helped but the people WITH insurance should not be PUNISHED either. My insurance didn't allow me enough to rebuild or replace completely(Made Whole) after all was said and done.

if my tax dollar helps these folks out ....i'm proud to pay it.

Charlles has an abslouely valid point. Those with flood insurance have a $250,000 cap and paid the premiums. SBA loans are avilable for those who qualify based upon income, credit scores and assets. Those without flood insurance (despite all that water around the penninsula) are to be GIVEN $150,000? Sorry - that should be as a loan with no qualifying criteria with a repayment schedule done as a percentage of income. Flood insurance down there was about $300 a year or so I'm told by a Biloxi resident who had it even though not living in a flood zone as designated on the maps. Right - have an expensive in-ground swiming pool (see the picture), don't spend $300 a year on flood insurance since the maps only predict but don't guarantee, get hit by a hurricane (hardly unusual), it floods (well there is all that water in the Gulf so it is not completely impossible that it oculd flood) and be GIVEN $150,000! _

That is just not rational. Rewarding people for being oblivious to all the water and statistical possiblites and just shrugging it off while others paid their flood insurance even if they weren't in a flood zone???? Help - yes. Loan - Yes. Grant - NO!

Wasn't there another hurricane called Rita also?

This is good news no matter who's to benefit. It's a step in the right direction. I might add it's the first step in the right direction. No the insured people shouldn't get punished, but maybe they have another road to take with their insurance companies. Anybody hear of a class action lawsuit before?? I wonder what the record for class action pay off is and wonder if it can be beaten..(Just might be the suit again big tobacco). Hang in there Charles, it will get better. I don't know when, but it will. Good luck and the rest of the country is pulling for you folks.

You don't have it straight. You must have some type of insurance in order to qualify for the grant. Hurricane, wind, rain...it's the storm surge caused by the wind that is allowing some but not all to qualify for a grant. Remember these are very valuable homes in historic areas, 150,000 is just a drop in the bucket. I thought my settlment was great, but let me tell you, it goes faster than you think, especially with the high prices these out of town contractors are charging. Insurance is not to upgrade what you had but only to replace what was damaged.

Seems like if you are paying your taxes and insurance
that you are now second class Americans.Insurance, mortgage and goverment gets our equity. Property values have increased 30% and we get to rebuild with nothing.. That is not what this counrty is about, have a good vacation congress.

In what way is this an everybody wins scenario? Homeowners get a government "bailout", insurers avoid huge payouts. To all the owners of the "expensive historic homes and businesses" who didn't use their heads and insure themselves adequately, just who do you think will foot the bill for all these grants? That's right: good old U.S. taxpayers. And thanks a lot for increasing insurance premiums across the board for each and every other homeowner across the nation. Need a loan? You bet. Want a bailout? No way!

Wouldn't it be great in this materialistic season to remember what the holiday is all about? If everyone gave up the cost of a gift or two, and donated it to a hurricane disaster relief fund, think of what we could accomplish for our fellow Americans in need.No gift is too small!

I hope people don't rebuild the same types of homes that were knocked down. Concrete homes are more likely to withstand hurricane force winds and the kind of "rising water" that knocks your house down (that's quite a "flood", eh?). Jamaica gets hit by hurricanes all the time and they don't go through this every year because they learned to build concrete homes long ago. What's always remaining after a hurricane? Anything made of concrete: steps, porches, slabs, and some houses (go see the hurricane house on Hayden & 90 in Pass Christian, MS; it's still structurally sound though all the brick homes for a block around it are completely gone).

Sorry Melissa, I thought that most people had insurance, just not the right kind for their area. I was in Long Beach helping out around Thankgiving and saw the storm surges affects. Not very pretty. Down right deadly around the Walmart there. No one feels worse than I do outside of the affected area about what happened and hope the people in that area get what they want.

To me this isn't fair. I know that there were a lot of people who did not go out and buy flood insurance because they didn't live in a flood plain. Many of my friends and my in-laws fall under that category. My husband and I didn't live in a flood plain either, but I knew that if a Cat 5 storm came through everybody lived in a flood plain- we only lived on a coastline and all flood policies clearly state that they cover all rising water including storm surge. So I bought the extra flood insurance, which was the best $230 I've ever spent, and now I see that Congress is going to bail everyone out. Bail out the people who did not have the same foresight as me. All of a sudden I don't seem or feel so smart about buying the flood policy. I feel like I'm being punished for it.

Where is the humanity in some of these comments? People need to see beyond the $$$ signs and find the compassion in their hearts for those people who lost so much of their lives...insured, uninsured, we are all PEOPLE and that is the most important thing.

I would prefer my tax money went to helping those at home in need who weren't insured than to funding some BS war overseas...

This GOP administration is more concern about democracy in Iraq than the current needs of it's own taxpaying citizens. Iraq is starting to look like a money laundry for the GOP Special interest. It also appears that the lack of quality assistance for the people who suffered losses from Katrina may create new terrorists from the pool of unhappy hurricane victims.

These people need to take some responsibility for their past decisions. If I build a home in the forest, with no fire insurance, do I expect the government to bail me out? No. I purchase fire insurance. And if I can't get fire insurance then I won't build my home in the forest. How many times is Waveland going to be rebuilt? How many times are taxpayers and insurance companies going to bail out Waveland? It's not a logical place to site homes and businesses. Any bailout to Waveland should be under the requirement that no structure is ever rebuilt on property in question.

WOW! My tax dollars are rebuilding a person's POOL too? That is absurd! I pay taxes and I am responsible enought to have insurance. However, I do not carry flood insurance since I do not live near the water but if my house flooded the government wouldn't come to my rescue. It is amazing how people can either be so cheap or irresponsible to not get flood insurance when they live near a coast where Hurricanes hit..... but then again maybe they are smart enough to know that it would be a waste of money since the tax payers will bail them out.

I live in CA but I am a New Orleans native and my daughter passed away due to Katrina wrath on SWA airlines coming home to me here in CA. My parents lost their home and the insurance company only paid for flood damage and not the home owner insurance they have paid on most their lives, a huge hole was left on the side of the house what can we do about this??? the insurance companies are ripping off these poor displaced people who do not have enough money to buy another house.Bush, congress or someone should be doing something about this what about the insurance comissioner of LA??????

Vicki of Billings expresses the hope that the residents in the areas detroyed won't build the same type of houses and will change the design to better withstand a hurricane. She must have missed the article in the NY Times last week about the rebuilding plans of people in th Biloxi-Gulfport area. Prominently featured was a photo of a retired teacher standing on the slab of her house with the water clearly visible. The text reported that woman said she had did not want to raise the new house's foundaion to avoid potential flooding, planned to rebuild just as it had been because she wanted to be able to walk in at ground level.
The same article went on to quote the mayor of the town complaining that if flood maps were adjusted to show where the flooding had hit, then large parts of the town would be in a flood zone thus requiring flood insurance and upsetting the residents by labelling their neighborhoods that flooded as flood zones.
And few days later, the Biloxi newspaper editorial complained about a lack of sympathy and help for those faced with rebuilding and wondered what it would take to get help. HOW ABOUT MAKE THE RESIDENTS BUILD TO AVOID FLOOD AND STORM DAMAGE; AND TELL THE MAYOR TO GET A GRIP ON REALITY - AREAS THAT FLOODED ARE PROPERLY CALLED "FLOOD ZONE" BECAUSE THEY ARE AT RISK OF FLOODING!

To all of you poor slobs in the North East that are getting help with your heating bills shame On You that is my tax dollars and i don't want them spent like that.Go cold or chop some wood.

My mother paid $77 a month for flood insurance for 24(!) years on her house in Waveland. Seventy-seven dollars a month is a lot for someone on a fixed income. That house was beyond the famous railroad tracks and was MILES from the beach. We are not talking about a beach front mansion here. Her mortgage company informed her that she did not need to carry flood insurance since she was not in a flood plain. She dropped her flood insurance in January of 2004. On August 29th, a storm surge of what has been reported as 17 feet high inundated her neighborhood, destroying her home. Here's someone who has paid her taxes, some of which were used to help rebuild homes and businesses in flood plains in the Midwest and restore electricity in Baghdad. The bottom line is that many, many people in Waveland are just like you...they pay their bills and follow the rules. They paid for all of the insurance they thought they needed. And now they are living off of the kindness of strangers (and family). And people are going to pass judgement and rant about how stupid and cheap they are? How DARE you!

For those that had Flood Insurance - isn't the fact that you are eligible for up to $250,000 a start? Many people were not in flood plains - (I can attest to that being in Diamondhead on the North side of I-10) - they had hurricane insurance period. Why would you not want your fellow neighbors to have something - when right now they have nothing? I don't understand the anger. I guarantee you that many of the people I know would have purchased flood insurance - IF they were in any sort of area had every flooded, OR were offered it by their insurance companies. I know that $250,00 won't rebuild everything for those that had the flood insurance but it is something. If this program has a 10 year buyout (like Gene Taylors plan) where the recipients have to pay for Flood Insurance that would be fine with many of them. Let's keep pulling together like the class acts that we in MS have been. I'm thrilled that this might happen - my 70 plus year old parents lost their home and I will pray this works out for everyone!

For those folks without flood insurance, too bad; you gambled and lost. Fact the facts. The federal government is not responsible for your bad decisions, and I resent my tax dollars being used to bail out stupid folks. If anything could be provided perhaps low intrest loans, but grantees should be made to repay the loan.
Everyone, everywhere, should be thinking about taking personal responsibility for your lives, and making decisions accordingly; not looking for free handouts from local, state and federal agencies.

Yes David there was another hurricane named Rita, however some bloggers are getting this web site confused. It is about Bay St, Louis/Waveland.

It's simple, the locaL BUILDING CODES NEED TO BE CHANGED and congrss needs to pass a bill to put as much money as they have into rebuilding Iraq into rebuilding the Gulf after the recent hurricanes. Tax money better spent.

thank you, Missy.....well said