Pascagoula, Mississippi is still struggling to recover from Katrina nearly three years after the storm.
Months of wrangling over proposals to bring a limited number of "Katrina cottages" to the city on a permanent basis ended Tuesday night when city leaders unanimously approved the measures.
Before the votes, Dorothy Shaw, director of state and local affairs with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, told the council that the shipyard could hire 1,000 workers today if there were somewhere for them to live. Representatives from Chevron Refinery Pascagoula, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others were there in support of the project.
We were 95 percent underwater. So we have a lot of people that have not rebuilt, don't have a place to live. Couple that with our industry that's having trouble finding employees and Pascagoula depends on that," said Pascagoula City Manager, Kay Kell.
Up to 16 cottages will be donated by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to the city will be lived in for two years by people still in need of assistance, Kell said.
People who are in the process of rebuilding and don't have anywhere to go or don't have room on their lot for the cottage while rebuilding will reside in the cottages.
After the two-year deadline, the city-owned property and cottages will become a retail area, Kell said.
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