Word: storms
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...always a band playing on the beach, crabs cooking, and constant parties. "This was Margaritaville," says Gene Reynolds, a local high school principal. There is nothing but concrete slabs where the houses once stood, and a few concrete steps leading to nothing. The only thing left standing after the storm was the town's water tower. Reynolds and four other men are working nights and weekends to build a new house - one of five planned...
Dozens of alligators duck and dodge airboats at the Sabine Wildlife Refuge, where the cleanup from Hurricane Rita is just beginning nearly a year after the storm hit the Texas-Louisiana border. Rita struck less than a month after Katrina, forcing New Orleans evacuees to flee further inland. Rita's storm surge demolished coastal Louisiana towns and turned this southwest Louisiana marsh into a toxic trash heap, leaving fields littered with everything from flip-flops and shampoo bottles to refrigerators and entire 18-wheelers. One of about 3,000 trash piles is 5 miles long and half a mile wide...
...After the storm, FEMA cleaned up to the refuge's property line - and stopped. Congressman Charles Boustany (R-La.) blames the Stafford Act, which doesn't allow FEMA to work on government land. "We had the Army Corps of engineers and the EPA down there, but they couldn't go on federal property," he says. "You could see where the cleanup work was being done, and 100 yards over, there's horrendous debris and hazardous tanks - and nobody's touching...
...what the long-term damage will be. "It's been exceedingly frustrating," says Boustany, who wants the provision in the Stafford Act, which covers disaster and emergency assistance, changed to allow government cleanup crews onto federal property. With the hurricane season just gaining momentum, he worries about the next storm. Environmental groups recently issued a report urging Congress to pass new legislation to restore the disappearing wetlands. "Unless Louisiana's losses are reversed, the communities of Louisiana cannot survive," said Carlton Dufrechou, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation...
...wetlands have to be preserved, because they slow down the storm and decrease the storm surge. "The wetlands protect the levees, and the levees protect the people," says Dale Hall Director of U.S. Fish & Wildlife services. He points out that for every 2.7 miles a hurricane travels across a marsh, the storm surge is reduced by one foot. "We have to focus on rebuilding those wetlands for the future - or it's going to get even worse as storms come in," Hall says...