Federal Emergency Management Agency

An elementary school in Minot severely damaged by Souris River flooding last year is getting federal help. North Dakota's congressional delegation says the Federal Emergency Management Agency has allocated nearly $2.9 million to help repair Longfellow Elementary. FEMA late last year announced nearly $30 million in federal money to rebuild Minot's Lincoln Elementary and Eric Ramstad Middle School, both of which were destroyed in the flood. FEMA also has previously given Minot's school district about $8.5 million for other flood-related measures.

An elementary school in Minot severely damaged by Souris River flooding last year is getting federal help. North Dakota's congressional delegation says the Federal Emergency Management Agency has allocated nearly $2.9 million to help repair Longfellow Elementary. FEMA late last year announced nearly $30 million in federal money to rebuild Minot's Lincoln Elementary and Eric Ramstad Middle School, both of which were destroyed in the flood. FEMA also has previously given Minot's school district about $8.5 million for other flood-related measures.

WASHINGTON -- Senators have agreed on a compromise to restructure and expand the Federal Emergency Management Agency, restoring some of its responsibilities. The FEMA director, currently R. David Paulison, would have direct access to the president in a crisis, but the agency would remain a part of the Homeland Security Department. The compromise will be included in a budget bill Congress is scheduled to vote on this month. Senator Susan M. Collins, a Maine Republican who heads the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, worked out the compromise late...

Clever pundits hadn't even started to call it "Snowtober" yet when Cheshire realized it needed to take an extreme approach to one of the most extreme weather events the town — and state — had seen in years. Shortly after the Oct. 29 snowstorm that uprooted trees, closed roads and knocked out power all over town, the municipality called on residents to take whatever debris they had — sticks, branches, limbs, indeed whole trees — and pile it all in one of several designated spots in town parks.

EMMITSBURG, Md. - A fleet of newly designed mobile homes was rolled out here yesterday by federal officials to replace the much-criticized travel trailers used after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The new mobile homes - six models were designed - were built as part of a $400 million federal program overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The new models were being toured by FEMA officials. The trailers have been tested and meet FEMA standards for safe formaldehyde levels.

WASHINGTON -- Most of FEMA's problems in dealing with disasters can be fixed with better planning, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Congress yesterday. "We are going to be very prepared for Hurricane Wilma," he said of the storm on the horizon. Testifying before a special House committee created to probe the slow federal response to Katrina, Chertoff deflected questions about his own actions by telling lawmakers he had relied on Federal Emergency Management Agency specialists with decades of experience in hurricane response.

NEW ORLEANS - A week after Hurricane Katrina, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official in charge of streamlining the flow of disaster aid issued a directive that would have cut through the red tape and expedited a staggering 1,029 rebuilding projects and $5.3 billion. The official issued a memo that said that once local and regional FEMA officials approve a project, Washington must release the money within three days. But in a decision critics say led to the loss of precious time in New Orleans's recovery, FEMA higher-ups countermanded the order.

WASHINGTON -- FEMA exposed taxpayers to significant waste, and possibly violated federal law, by awarding $3.6 billion worth of Hurricane Katrina contracts to companies with poor credit histories and bad paperwork, investigators say. The report by the Homeland Security Department's office of inspector general, set to be released later this week, examines the propriety of 36 trailer contracts designated for small and local businesses in the stricken...

WILBRAHAM — The first call for help came at 3 a.m., a few hours after the tornado warnings had been lifted. A woman from Westfield had awakened Tyler Oleksak, owner of T.J. Bark Mulch Inc., hoping he might help her dispose of all the trees that had fallen around her property. It was the first of many calls, and then Oleksak gave the town’s Public Works Department a call to see whether they might coordinate. Within a few days, the Southwick company had hauled off at least 2,500 tons of debris.

BAY ST. LOUIS, MISS. - The anguish of Hurricane Katrina should have ended for Gina Bouffanie and her daughter when they left their FEMA trailer. But with each hospital visit and each labored breath her child takes, the young mother fears it has just begun. "It's just the sickness. I can't get rid of it. It just keeps coming back," said Bouffanie, 27, who was pregnant with her now 15-month-old daughter, Lexi, while living in the trailer. "I'm just like, Oh God, I wish like this would stop.' If I had known it would get her sick, I wouldn't have stayed in...

WILBRAHAM — The first call for help came at 3 a.m., a few hours after the tornado warnings had been lifted. A woman from Westfield had awakened Tyler Oleksak, owner of T.J. Bark Mulch Inc., hoping he might help her dispose of all the trees that had fallen around her property. It was the first of many calls, and then Oleksak gave the town’s Public Works Department a call to see whether they might coordinate. Within a few days, the Southwick company had hauled off at least 2,500 tons of debris.

EMMITSBURG, Md. - A fleet of newly designed mobile homes was rolled out here yesterday by federal officials to replace the much-criticized travel trailers used after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The new mobile homes - six models were designed - were built as part of a $400 million federal program overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The new models were being toured by FEMA officials. The trailers have been tested and meet FEMA standards for safe formaldehyde levels.

EDDYVILLE, Ky. - In the first real test of the Obama administration's ability to respond to a disaster, Kentucky officials are giving the federal government good marks for its response to a deadly ice storm. Yet more than 300,000 residents remained without power yesterday, and some areas had yet to see aid workers nearly a week after the storm, a fact not lost on some local authorities. "We haven't seen FEMA; they haven't been here," said Jaime Green, a spokeswoman for the emergency operations center in Lyon County, about 95 miles northwest of Nashville.

SMITH POINT, Texas - A 30-mile scar of debris along the Texas coast stands as a festering testament to what state and local officials say is FEMA's sluggish response to the 2008 hurricane season. Two and a half months after Hurricane Ike blasted the shoreline, alligators and snakes crawl over vast piles of shattered building materials, lawn furniture, trees, boats, tanks of butane and other hazardous substances, thousands of animal carcasses, perhaps even the corpses of people killed by the storm.

WASHINGTON - Gulf Coast officials asked lawmakers yesterday for fast federal money for hurricane recovery and a minimum of bureaucratic red tape. Texas is looking at $11.4 billion in damages from Ike, including $16 million in damages to Houston, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst said. Devastation in Galveston is another $2 billion, that city's mayor said. Louisiana is facing $1 billion in damages from Ike and Gustav, Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu said. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said in prepared testimony that the $40 million cost of evacuating...

WASHINGTON - Manufacturers say they are not responsible for the Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers that had toxic levels of formaldehyde, despite Democrats' findings that companies knew of the dangers yet sold them to the government anyway after Hurricane Katrina. The report by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is at odds with an analysis by Republican staff members on the same committee. The Republican report backs the companies and found that trailer manufacturers should not be held accountable for the high levels of formaldehyde - a...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A year and a half after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA is auctioning off at fire-sale prices thousands of trailers used by storm victims, raising fears among mobile home dealers that the government will flood the market and depress prices. Mobile home dealers are finding that some potential customers would rather wait to make a deal on a used FEMA trailer than drop $25,000 to $40,000 for a new one. "People think they're just going to get to buy them for nothing," said Gale Crews, owner of Diamond State Mobile Home Sales in Hope, Ark., where FEMA is...

EDDYVILLE, Ky. - In the first real test of the Obama administration's ability to respond to a disaster, Kentucky officials are giving the federal government good marks for its response to a deadly ice storm. Yet more than 300,000 residents remained without power yesterday, and some areas had yet to see aid workers nearly a week after the storm, a fact not lost on some local authorities. "We haven't seen FEMA; they haven't been here," said Jaime Green, a spokeswoman for the emergency operations center in Lyon County, about 95 miles northwest of Nashville.

BAY ST. LOUIS, MISS. - The anguish of Hurricane Katrina should have ended for Gina Bouffanie and her daughter when they left their FEMA trailer. But with each hospital visit and each labored breath her child takes, the young mother fears it has just begun. "It's just the sickness. I can't get rid of it. It just keeps coming back," said Bouffanie, 27, who was pregnant with her now 15-month-old daughter, Lexi, while living in the trailer. "I'm just like, Oh God, I wish like this would stop.' If I had known it would get her sick, I wouldn't have stayed in the trailer for so long.

NEW ORLEANS - A week after Hurricane Katrina, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official in charge of streamlining the flow of disaster aid issued a directive that would have cut through the red tape and expedited a staggering 1,029 rebuilding projects and $5.3 billion. The official issued a memo that said that once local and regional FEMA officials approve a project, Washington must release the money within three days. But in a decision critics say led to the loss of precious time in New Orleans's recovery, FEMA higher-ups countermanded...