Posted on 10/16/2005 8:02:17 PM PDT by M_Nair
British tycoon rebuilds hurricane town Robert Winnett and Claire Newell
BRITAIN’S richest man is to pay for an entire American town devastated by Hurricane Katrina to be rebuilt. Lakshmi Mittal, the steel tycoon worth an estimated £14.8 billion, is expected to spend more than £50m over the next five years rebuilding Long Beach in Mississippi.
He will provide the labour, capital and expertise to restore the town, home to 17,000 people, which was wrecked by the hurricane in August.
Insurers are refusing to pay out for flood-damaged homes while government aid is expected to be spent on restoring New Orleans and other large cities ahead of smaller towns.
Mittal, 55, said this weekend the effects of Katrina were “heartbreaking” and he had been moved to get involved.
“It will take years to rebuild the affected communities,” he said. “These communities are left with challenges that require innovative, long-term solutions and substantial commitments of both time and resources. Few cities were more devastated than Long Beach.”
Mittal’s donation will propel him into the ranks of Britain’s most philanthropic citizens. He is also understood to have given large amounts to areas hit by the tsunami and is likely to give money to victims of last weekend’s earthquake in Pakistan.
About half the homes in Long Beach were destroyed by the hurricane and the town had to be largely abandoned after the sewage system was destroyed. Most residents have been moved to temporary accommodation in Florida or trailers on the town’s outskirts, paid for by the federal government.
Last week Mittal moved a team of engineers, logistics specialists and other experts to assess the size and scope of the project. The billionaire will send teams of builders to begin the work later this month.
“We will be covering materials and people to do the job, which makes the costs very hard to calculate,” said a spokesman for Mittal’s company. “Elsewhere, other companies have given a cheque and left — that’s something we won’t do. We will see this project through. Mr Mittal was very affected by what he saw. He said: ‘We have the people, the materials, let’s do it’.”
The tycoon has no previous links to Long Beach, although his company, Mittal Steel, has a plant in Jackson, Mississippi. His representatives are understood to have toured the coastline in the area looking for a suitable town after Mittal decided to help the hurricane victims. They were impressed by the mayor of Long Beach.
Billy Skellie, the mayor, said rebuilding the infrastructure and public buildings would cost almost £16m. Sources close to Mittal said this would be a “fraction” of the total cost.
“It’s going to take three years before we have a half-normal life over here,” said Skellie. “Our community is devastated, but the people here are very resilient. It was a huge relief when Mittal stepped in.”
Residents also expressed relief that Mittal, who bought a £70m mansion in London last year, had chosen the town. Richard Notter, 47, a defence contractor, said: “Everything within 1,000ft of the beach has gone. The city is bankrupt, we’ve lost 60% of our business, 45% of our homes. It’s going to be a long-term rebuild.”
Mimi McGrath, a local government worker, said: “My house has gone, Long Beach is devastated. What Mittal has done is wonderful, a godsend.”
The issue of who pays for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is becoming increasingly contentious. Insurers are refusing to pay for flood damage and developers expect thousands of homes to be repossessed. Politicians in the affected areas are appealing for more than $100 billion in federal aid.
Mittal’s donation would put him among the top 10 givers in Britain, based on the Sunday Times giving index. The Weston family was the biggest net donor in 2004, with £68.6m.
Mittal became the wealthiest person in Britain after creating the world’s biggest steel firm last year. With his business ambitions now largely fulfilled, friends say he is eager to achieve a global legacy. The Long Beach donation is expected to be the first in a series of high-profile charity acts and he is tipped to take a seat in the House of Lords next year.
Wow
amazing
If I had the money, I would buy stock in his company for funding the rebuilding of this town.
The land that those homes stood on will be repossessed however, in many cases it may not even be worth the cost of the legal proceedings to do so! The US taxpayers (and the national economy)will ultimately take the hit through the numerous housing guarantees/subsidies which underwrite home purchases today!
Like all articles being written..., the slant is that those "Nasty Insurance Companies" are refusing to pay (even though the policies they wrote SPECIFICALLY exclude flood damage). If you are in an area subject to floods (even tidal surges!) you better damn well buy federal flood insurance!
Cool. I wonder what Soros et. al. thinks of this?
By the way, quietly, a few weeks back Congress passed a law and Bushed signed it giving FEMA/NFIP access to treasury money. About 4 billion dollars. And that's the first chunk of money. To pay for flood claims because the $$$ is not there to pay the claims. Because, as I said above, it's really not insurance because it's guaranteed by the federal gov't. Which means that every taxpayer, even those that live in the middle of the desert somewhere pay for flood insurance losses.
What this billionaire is doing is very nice but does it make sense? Not to me but it's his money.
I heard Trent Lott on the radio pushing this idea that the commercial insurers should cover flood losses they did not insure. Lott is such a tool. But he is in Congress and that seems to be a requirement.....
I was thinking the same thing!!
the big movie stars are sure limiting their charity!
In Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, Canadian billionaire industrialist Frank Stronach plans to purchase two tracts of land between Simmesport and Hamburg to house 170 evacuees in "Canada Village." He has its occupants temporarily housed at a racetrack in West Palm Beach, Florida, and intends to bring them to the new community before the racing season begins on November 4th.
I would have posted the article, but just discovered the hard way that FR doesn't allow direct posting from the Alexandria Town Talk any more. Here's a link instead to a much more detailed feature on the project from a Canadian source:
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/world/article.jsp?content=20050926_112690_112690
THat's amazing what he is doing, I hope it doesn't put him in the poor house.
OTOH, it appalls and sickens me that insurance companies are weaseling their way out of paying for hurricane damage on account of "flooding." New Orleans notwithstanding, the damage was from storm surge and wind, meaning lateral movement, not downward movement of rain... Even the damage in New Orleans was not directly from the storm surge hitting the city, or there would be no more New Orleans, no the damage was from the levees breaking, which again is from storm surge--lateral movement, not downward movement of rain...
some people need to freep state insurance commissioners in the area and harass the heck out of insurance companies, because they are truly pulling a fast one here...
one of the few times I would say a lot of people need to get lawyers...
He'll restore Long Beach faster than Nagin does the 9th ward.
That "slant" jumped right out at me too.
About Mittal Steel Company
Mittal Steel Company is the world's most global steel company. Formed from the combination of Ispat International N.V. and LNM Holdings N.V., the company has operations in fourteen countries, on four continents. Mittal Steel encompasses all aspects of modern steelmaking, to produce a comprehensive portfolio of both flat and long steel products to meet a wide range of customer needs. It serves all the major steel consuming sectors, including automotive, appliance, machinery and construction.
For 2004, Mittal Steel had revenues of US$22.2 billion and steel shipments of 42.1 million tons. The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange and the Euronext Amsterdam under the ticker symbol “MT”.
Anyone got price and performance info?
You probably should pay it yourself. You are just as liable for flood damage as the insurance companies.
I live in a tornado prone area, maybe I should drop my coverage for tornados and if I suffer damage the insurance company will pay anyway.
Thank you for the information. It's to bad I don't have the cash to act on the information.
Wow.....Really like this guy....
Thanks to Mittal!
And I bet that anything built by private industry will be completed faster, better, and cheapter, than anything done by the government.
Long Beach will be up and functioning before FEMA even gets the first check cut.
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