Katrina News Online

NEW ORLEANS — A U.S. District Court judge says a woman is headed to jail for falsely claiming to have a New Orleans home damaged in Hurricane Katrina struck in august 2005.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash Jr. sentenced that Markisha Burks to a year and a day in federal prison for fraud for using her false claim of property damage to collect funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Tuesday.

Markisha Burks, 27, was convicted by a federal jury last December of 12 counts of fraud.

Authorities said by claiming Hurricane Katrina resulted in damages to her home and personal property, Markisha Burks was able to collect $11,000 in aid, including housing as well as rental assistance.

The claim came about in spite of the fact that Markisha Burks didn’t have a New Orleans home when the hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.

Acting U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates says that “This defendant tried to take advantage of FEMA’s emergency help which needed to go to real victims, and now she will pay the price.”

The Journal-Constitution said Markisha Burks also was ordered to pay FEMA officials and the American Red Cross a total of $11,426 in restitution.

Former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco says the new memoir of former President George W. Bush’s political advisor isn’t accurate about the days following Katrina.

Karl Rove’s forthcoming book says a lack of specific requests from Blanco led the White House to push for the response to be “federalized” - placing the National Guard along with other state and local entities under federal command.

Kathleen Blanco said Thursday she made the state’s needs clear in numerous conversations with the White House officials and that the federal government failed to deliver needed buses or else Army troops that would have untied the state-controlled National Guard for life-saving work. According to Kathleen Blanco, experts on disaster response advised against federalization because it would tie her hands in dealing with the hurricane.

More than 4 years have passed since Hurricane Katrina hit the south, and lots of residents still endure today. One group of Mississippi victims aims to get compensated by the folks they believe are accountable for all that property damage–multinational corporations. News-wire service Agence-France Presse (AFP) lately spied documents indicating that southern Mississippi residents are attempting to litigate a group of greenhouse gas-emitting corporations through a class-action lawsuit. The group argues that main emitters like Shell and Chevron are to blame for fueling global warming and spurring Katrina.

The lawsuit, which was initially filed back in 2005, was initially squashed by a district court. But this fall, 3 federal appeals court judges agreed that the case might be heard. Previous month, the same court decided to re-examine the case, this time with 9 judges present. These judges will set a hearing date in the next 3 months and plan to make a decision about whether the case can progress by the end of the year.

Residents seek reimbursement from Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Honeywell, American Electric Power and other major corporations. The plaintiffs claim these companies had a liability to keep away from endangering environmental and human health, in addition to personal and public property.

Greenhouse gas emitters like Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron surely need somebody to keep them in check. But, with no laws on the books limiting these corporations’ emissions, it seems unlikely that a judge would rule in support of the plaintiffs. Still, a landmark case like this draws attention to climate change’s role in creating fiercer, more unpredictable storms. Possibly sparking a dialogue will make a bigger push for much-needed climate legislation that will maintain multinationals’ emissions in check.

Federal prosecutors desire a judge to release charges against a man affiliated with his parent’s construction company, which was accused of ripping off Katrina victims.

William C. Jordan and his parents, Gary F. Jordan and Joyce E. Jordan, were indicted in the year 2008 for the work performed by Jordan Construction in Pearl River County.

The indictment says Jordan Construction didn’t do the work and it was hired to do or didn’t do it correctly.

Prosecutors filed a motion Tuesday seeking dismissal of charges against William C. Jordan. The document didn’t say why, however Gary F. Jordan recently pleaded guilty.

The judge didn’t straight away rule.

William C. Jordan’s attorney, Michael Crosby, had no comment as the motion was pending.

A federal appeals court has agreed to review a 3-judge panel’s ruling that a group of Mississippi coastal landowners can sue energy and chemical companies claiming their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contributed to global warming, caused sea levels to raise and added to the intensity of Katrina.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on February 26 granted a petition from the energy and chemical companies for appraise by the full court of the panel’s decision.

The court said that the case would be scheduled for oral argument the week of May 24 and it gave attorneys for both sides pending April 30 to file briefs in the case.

An ex- New Orleans police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to knowingly falsifying facts and covering up a fatal shooting involving police in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Retired Lt. Michael Lohman, 42, pleaded culpable in U.S. District Court. His plea is part of a federal investigation into numerous police shootings in 2005 in the hectic and desperate days following Katrina, according to reports. Michael Lohman could spend up to 5 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for May 26.

In total, 7 officers were charged with murder or attempted murder in the shootings, which occurred September 4, 2005, almost 1 week after the deadly storm, ravaged the city and other parts of the South.

The charges were later on dropped, reports stated.

As per the reports, the shooting occurred as local police and other law enforcement officers accosted 6 people crossing the Danziger Bridge. Officers opened fire on the group and in the process killed 40-year-old Ronald Madison, a mentally challenged individual, also 19-year-old James Brissette. But, reported witness accounts said the officers fired at unarmed persons.

Federal documents stated that Michael Lohman arrived on the scene after the shooting and encouraged officers to falsify reports to point out the individuals opened fire on officers first. He reportedly also gave them consent to plant a firearm at the scene of the crime.

As said by the federal authorities, more pleas and convictions could follow with further investigations.

A 61-year-old Buffalo woman was sentenced to 3 years’ probation also ordered to make restitution for making a fake claim for damages suffered in Hurricane Katrina.

Aaron Mango, the Assistant U.S. Attorney said Gayle Porter was convicted of defrauding the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) by claiming more than $10,000 in damages from the storm and flooding, when she in fact lived in Buffalo at the time Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area.

She has to repay $10,391 in restitution to FEMA.

The influx of evacuees from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina had slight impact on crime rates in the cities that took them in, said by the researchers.

5 criminologists who examined crime rates in the 3 cities found a spike in homicide also robbery in Houston immediately after Hurricane Katrina and in homicide in Phoenix, the Houston Chronicle reports. However they found no significant increase in other crimes, and murder and robbery rates soon declined yet again.

Houston grew by 7 % as roughly 240,000 people from New Orleans evacuated there. About 30,000 people came to San Antonio and 6,000 to Phoenix.

Mr. Sean Varano, a criminologist at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, said he and the other researchers wanted to check on anecdotal information on huge increases in crime.

“One of our takeaway messages is if the evacuees were legally responsible for this crime wave, we would have expected to see a much broader range of crime to increase besides murder and robbery,” Sean Varano said. “This is not quite the effect the local people claimed on the ground there.”

The man who managed Harrison County’s emergency operations for Katrina is at present in Haiti, where he says the great effort is “heartbreaking.”

In a telephone interview with The Sun-Herald, Mr. Joe Spraggins says earthquake survivors are making a tent out of just about anything, or sleeping on the streets.

Joe Spraggins is now working for DRC Haiti, a private company vying for recovery contracts and providing assistance. He’s been there since January 31.

Recalling Hurricane Katrina, he said Haitians would consider the federal trailers used after Katrina to be mansions. Joe Spraggins said cleanup has been difficult because the majority of the buildings were concrete and sat on hillsides.

Joe Spraggins said the country faces years of rebuilding.

A central Pennsylvania animal shelter is looking for new homes for above a dozen pets that had previously been displaced nearly 5 years ago by Hurricane Katrina.

The dogs and cats were initially part of a pack of 100 pet refugees rescued by the lady in Texas in the hurricane’s aftermath.

In accordance with the Center County PAWS shelter, the unidentified woman had found new homes for some pets before she moved to Pennsylvania in 2006 and took 75 pets along with her.

The lady found new owners for more pets, but a recent crisis enforced her to give up caring for the residual animals.

The shelter said previous month it initially took in almost 2 dozen Katrina pet refugees. Its Web site Thursday showed 11 cats and 3 dogs pending adoption.