Six months after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the Gulf Coast, charities have disbursed more than $2 billion of the record sums they raised for the storm’s victims, leaving less than $1 billion for the task of helping hundreds of thousands of storm victims rebuild their lives, according to a survey by The Washington Post. Two-thirds of the $3.27 billion raised by private nonprofit organizations and tracked by the Post went to help evacuees and other Katrina victims with immediate needs – cash, food and temporary shelter, medical care, tarps for damaged homes and school supplies for displaced children.
Hawaii: Shark attack discounted
A snorkeler whose shark-bitten body was recovered off the coast of Maui was likely dead before the shark attack, according to preliminary autopsy results. A coroner said there was “no clear indication” that Anthony Moore, 45, of San Jose, Calif., was alive at the time he was bitten. A kayak tour guide found body parts bobbing in the water Friday. Hawaii’s last fatal shark attack occurred off Maui in 2004. Moore was reported missing Thursday night after he failed to return from a popular snorkeling site, authorities said.
Texas: Mystery powder wasn’t ricin
The FBI determined a powdery substance found in a roll of quarters at a University of Texas dormitory was not ricin after initial state tests had indicated it was the potentially deadly poison, an FBI spokesman said Sunday. The FBI tests did not identify the substance, but they came back negative for the poison that is extracted from castor beans, the spokesman said. About 400 residents of the Moore-Hill dormitory were evacuated Friday night while hazardous-materials crews sanitized the area where the substance was found.
California: Gasoline prices dip
Retail gas prices across the country dropped an average of 6 cents in the past two weeks, according to a new survey. The weighted average price for all three grades had dropped to $2.27 a gallon by Friday, said Trilby Lundberg, who from Camarillo publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country. Self-serve regular averaged $2.24 a gallon nationwide. Midgrade cost $2.34 a gallon while the price for premium was $2.44. Gas prices are 33 cents higher than they were a year ago, Lundberg said Sunday.
From Herald news services
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