Testimony of David Walker, Comptroller Gen. of the U.S., before the Comm. on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate. The size & strength of Hurricane Katrina resulted in one of the largest natural disasters in our nation's history. Hurricane Katrina raised major questions about our nation's readiness & ability to respond to catastrophic disasters. Hurricane Rita increased demands on an already stressed response & recovery effort by all levels of government. The two hurricanes provided a sobering picture of the overwhelming strains on response & recovery if there are back-to-back catastrophic disasters in the same area. Includes recommendations.

As a result of widespread public interest in the fed. response to hurricanes Katrina & Rita, an audit was conducted of the Individuals & Households Program (IHP). FEMA provided $2,000 in IHP payments to affected households via its Expedited Assistance (EA) program. Victims who received EA may qualify for up to $26,200 in IHP assistance. As of 12/05, IHP payments totaled $5.4 billion, with $2.3 billion provided in the form of EA. These payments were made via checks, electronic fund transfers, & a small no. of debit cards. This report provides the results to date related to whether controls are in place & operating effectively: to limit EA to qualified applicants, & that there weren't duplicate EA payments. Charts & tables.

GAO has undertaken a body of work to address federal, state, and local preparations for, response to, and recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This report provides a statement for the record by David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the U.S., of GAO¿s preliminary findings as of Feb. 1, 2006.

The results of the official Congressional investigation into the government's preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In the immediate aftermath of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour appointed the Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal. In summer 2006, the commission asked the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute to describe the state of the pre-Katrina housing markets in Mississippi's three coastal counties, to estimate the damage the storm did to their housing markets, to describe the status of the recovery effort, and to identify problems that might inhibit that recovery. The authors found that Katrina damaged about 60 percent of the three counties' housing stock, but the extent and intensity of that damage varied substantially, depending on the source of that damage. The recovery process then got off to a slow start; the pace seems to have moved more rapidly for single-family than for multifamily units and for moderately than for severely damaged units. Recovery will take at least another two to three years, and the final costs will exceed $4 billion. Three issues will be critical to short-term recovery: construction-sector capacity; availability of funds to finance recovery; and an adequate supply of housing, especially affordable housing, for those whom the storm displaced from their residences. Finally, following through on intentions to implement longer-term mitigation plans seems to become more difficult as time passes since the storm.