Small businesses located in four Gulf Coast states (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas) received about $2.7 billion (13.3 percent) of the $20.5 billion federal agencies directly awarded nationwide in contracts for hurricane recovery between fiscal years 2005 and 2011. Small businesses in the rest of the United States received about $2.6 billion (12.9 percent). The Corps and the rest of DOD--t

The federal government used a variety of direct and indirect funding programs to support the delivery of human recovery services by nonprofit organizations following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in areas such as housing, long-term case management, and health care. These programs included well-established grants such as the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Temporary Assistance for Nee

We reviewed state natural catastrophe insurance programs in Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Texas. We found that most of the state programs in our review had grown since 2005. In particular, the insurance programs in Mississippi, Texas, and Florida experienced the most growth in total exposure to loss since 2005, with increases

As the federal lead for long-term disaster recovery, FEMA's LTCR played two major roles in the three disasters that we reviewed--facilitating the coordination of federal, state, and nongovernmental assistance for recovery and helping communities to develop long-term recovery plans. GAO found two broad challenges related to this assistance. First, the criteria for when to involve LTCR and ESF-14 i

The federal government provided more than $231 million to support disaster case management programs for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; however, breaks in federal funding hindered service delivery, and federal agencies and case management agencies faced coordination challenges. A lack of accurate and timely information sharing and incompatible data systems may have left some victims most

Louisiana and Mississippi received the largest shares of CDBG disaster funds and targeted the majority toward homeowner assistance, allocating the rest to economic development, infrastructure, and other projects. Between 2006 and 2008, Louisiana's total allocation devoted to housing increased from 77 to 86 percent while Mississippi's decreased from 63 to 52 percent as the state focused on economi

Federal agencies provided more than$209 million for disaster case management services to help thousands of households cope with the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but breaks in federal funding adversely affected services to some hurricane victims. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded a grant of $66 million for initial case management services provided by Katr

While most policies (41 of 50) that define roles and responsibilities have been completed, such as the National Response Framework, 68 percent (49 of 72) of the plans to implement these policies, including several for catastrophic incidents, are not yet complete. As a result, the roles and responsibilities of key officials involved in responding to a catastrophe have not been fully defined and, t

GAO reported in September 2006 that the experience of Hurricane Katrina showed the need to improve leadership at all levels of government to respond to catastrophic disasters. For example, GAO reported that, in the response to Hurricane Katrina, there was confusion over roles and responsibilities under the National Response Plan, including the roles of the DHS Secretary, the FEMA Administrator, t

Lessons from past disasters provide a potentially valuable source of information for all levels of government as they seek to meet the many challenges of recovering from a major disaster. For affected state and local jurisdictions, good practices to consider include the following: (1) Creating a clear, implementable, and timely recovery plan can provide communities with a road map for the recover