Hurricane Katrina debris removal in Biloxi

The numbers are regarding Katrina storm debris removed from the city of Biloxi.According to debris-monitoring firm Neel-Schaffer, the city's FEMA-supported debris removal effort, which ended Aug. 29 and had a price tag of more than $81.5 milion, saw 2.98 million cubic yards of debris removed from the city. That's enough debris to cover a football field and stand 139.7 stories high.

The breakdown on the debris:

• Burnable: 458,390 cubic yards.
• Concrete, non-burnable: 2.488 million cubic yards.
• Appliances: 33,391 cubic yards.
• Electronics: 534 cubic yards.

To see more details on the debris-removal efforts in Biloxi, click here.

6-month post-Katrina statistics

At the six-month point in the storm recovery process in Biloxi, here were the available numbers:

• 3,167 – number of students in Biloxi public schools when classes resumed Sept. 26 (compared to 6,125 enrolled pre-storm). Five months after the storm, enrollment was at 4,321.
• $54,795 – amount of gaming tax city would be collecting per day if casinos were operating ($20 million a year; 35 percent of city’s annual operating revenue)
• $92,000 – amount city agreed to pay in July 2005 for a $10
  million business interruption insurance policy in the
  event casinos were shut down by a storm
• $500,000 – amount of gaming tax state lost each day Biloxi casinos after Katrina.
• More than 2.08 million cubic yards – amount of storm debris that had been removed from city streets and public rights-of-way since the storm. This amount of debris would cover a football field with and stand more than 97 stories high. City leaders estimate that about 75 percent of the debris had been removed six months after the storm.

• More than 5,000 – total number of building and repair permits the city had issued five months after the storm.
• $50 million – initial estimate on cost of removing debris from city rights of way (number will increase with removal of debris from private property, which is in the offing)
• 52 – Number of confirmed storm fatalities in Biloxi, as reported Jan. 31 by Harrison County Gary T. Hargrove. Of the 53 confirmed fatalities in Biloxi, a figure that includes one unidentified male, Hargrove said the average age was 58, with youngest being 22 and oldest, 90; and 14 were females and 39 were males.
• Sale taxes generated in Dec '04: $1.169 million
• Sale taxes generated in Dec. '05: $948,122

Biloxi recovery news

Some numbers as Biloxi enters the 24th month after Hurricane Katrina:

• The city's Community Development Department has issued nearly 20,000 permits of one type of other in the past 23 monthys, but a few of the key figures: A total of 303 new single-family home building permits have been issued in the past 23 months, accounting for an estimated $44 million in new-home construction. That’s a post-Katrina average of more than 13 new-home construction permits a month.
• More than 3,984 overall building permits have been issued for storm repairs, triggering nearly three times as many permits for electrical, plumbing and mechanical work for each residential building permit. The total valuation of the residential storm-repair permits: $61.8 million.
• Of the 2,500 or so temporary trailer permits issued by the city since Aug. 29, 2005, only about 450 trailers are believed to be in use today in Biloxi. The number of FEMA temporary trailer parks in Biloxi has dropped from 13 to a half-dozen.
• A total of 466 commercial building permits have been issued, for an estimated value of $333.4 million.
• Gaming revenue figures for casinos in Biloxi has set new records in one form or other in eight of the past 10 months, beginning with September 2006, when Biloxi casinos recorded their largest monthly revenue figure in the city’s 15-year history of legalized gaming.
• As of July 22, the city had hauled off more than 2.94 million cubic yards of debris, which would create a debris field large enough to cover a football field and stand more than 138 floors high. The city estimates that more than 98 percent of the Katrina debris has been removed.
• The city’s latest projection to FEMA is that debris removal and disposal in Biloxi will cost $79.7 million. To date, the city has spent $61.2 million and has been reimbursed $49.7 million. A few pending aspects of the debris removal effort, such as removal and disposal of the fishing bridges are Point Cadet and Back Bay, will account for nearly $4.5 million of the $79.7 million figure.