Sarah Smith me: Lee Smithson -- Sent: Wednesday. Apnl 06. 2016 6.56 AM To: Ben Gaston, Stephen McGraney. Greg Richard Wilson Subject: Re Congressional Meeting with Rep Thompson's staff No real surprises on the questions. when we had the State DirectorAction lssues meeting yesterday, the number one issue was the Red Cross. The general consensus was that is marginal at best. Trina informed us that 19 key leaders at the national level were fired yesterday. while that is encouraging, 'lt's not enough. we will spend a lot oftime over the next couple of weeks talking about Ben, alternative housing is a very slippery slope. Moving a temporarytrailer onto a homeowners property is extremely expensive. And there were many instances after Katrina where the "temporary" housing was nicer than the original domicile and moving the folks out was problematic once they moved in. I'm not sure why staffers are asking us about HUD. Someone needs to explain to me our role relative to HUD after a disaster. The concerns about the village ofSymond are precisely why I want us to organize the volunteer efforts. The MS Legislature does notgive MEMA money to tend to people's needs after a disaster other than some temporary housing funding. 50 when we are asked why we did not deliver commodities, cleaning supplies, food, etc, it is because we receive no funding to do so. But all constituents' unmet needs are blamed on the emergency management community. Therefore, it is incumbent on MEMA to do everything we can do to get reliefsupplies to everyone. As we go fonuard, I think we'll discover that the communities desire to help but there is no organization. Greg, I'll meet you in the lobby at 0915 for the ride to Benny Thompson's office. Lee Sent from Outlook Mobile On Tue, Apr 5,2016 at 5:25 PM 70700, "Greg Interesting questions from Thompson staff. Sent from my 'lPhone Begin forwarded message: From: "Courill, Margareu" Date. April 5, 2016 at 6:39:35 PM EDT Brown, Ruben" ,"McCorm'lck Chad" ,"EpStein, Corinne" odard, James" , "McKay, Samuel" -- "Wade, Michael w" , "Buckner, cnarles" --, "Gregorv i --"Rilevv Warren" -- Cc: "Sanders, William" "Carlson, Sue" -- Sublen: congressional Meeting with Repi Thompson's sun Please see Bill Sanders report on his visit with Rep. Thompson's staff today. Larry Buckner, please take the first item for action. Brett/Greg please follow up on the second item. You may contact Bill directly with questions. Today, 4/5/16, AEAO Sanders and CA Sue Carlson along with State Hazard Mitigation Officer Jana Henderson, met with most of the field representative staff of Congressman Bennie Thompson in their Bolton, MS., office. District Director Fannie Ware invited this office to come and generally share response/recovery information and answer questions regarding constituents with problems. The first subject brought up by the staffers revolved around actions of the Red Cross. Some of the staffers wanted to know why the Red Cross arrived and offered aid but then left the area without directing the survivors to adequate temporary or long-range shelter. effect, sending survivors back into houses not fit for habitation. The staffers were worried that Red Cross left, throwing their constituents out on the street while having unmet needs. The Congressional team explained that alternate shelter early-on comes under local and state procedures until FEMA programs can begin functioning. . .strong emphasis was placed on registration and not delaying same. Voluntary agency support was also suggested as a solution during this transition period. This situation, according to the staffers, has mainly occurred in Bolivar and counties. Action item: will make Red Cross aware of the staffers' concerns via FEMA VAL. Some staffers expressed great concern about the ability to house those displaced due to the storms. A request was made to provide the Congressman's office with all the requests made by the State under this declaration. Of particular interest was the possibilitv of having temporary housing in Bolivar and Coahoma counties. Action item: Referred to the state. Staffers also asked why HUD hasn't arrived and offered properties to those in the situation mentioned above? It was explained that HUD and FEMA programs are separate from each other. Jana Henderson advised that getting HUD involved required state requests and involved different critieria from declarations. One staffer asked if any FEMA DSA'ers have gone to the village of Symond, where many very poor survivors are in need of registering and receiving some type of support? It was reported that the DSA teams were made aware of the Symond request on March 31 when it was first reported to Congressional at a DRC tour in Cleveland. Bill Sanders Congressional Liaison, FEMA DR 4268 Mississippi