The U.S. Senate approved legislation Thursday to provide further relief to Hurricane Katrina victims.
The bill extends unemployment benefits for storm victims, and allows reimbursement to communities for supplies purchased for victims, such as linens, cots and toiletries.
The approval follows a scathing Congressional report released Wednesday. It stated "bureaucratic inertia" during the storm caused unnecessary deaths. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff admitted his agency was overwhelmed by the storm.
There is also growing concern regarding nearly 11,000 mobile homes originally designated for Katrina victims sitting at the Hope Municipal Airport in Arkansas. Some fear the homes are sinking into the soft ground. Gravel and jacks have been shipped in to stabilize them.
But, according to a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the trailer homes cannot be moved until space is made available for them in Louisiana and Mississippi, two states hit hard by hurricanes.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
