Hope after the hurricanes: after hurricanes hit the South, state lawmakers rolled up their sleeves.

Representative Jim Simpson, Jr., committed a major faux pas when he took to the House floor during a special session of the Mississippi Legislature in late September. Representative Simpson was in clear violation of the House's coat and tie dress code.

"The fact is, I don't own a suit and I don't own a coat and I don't own a tie and I don't own a home," Simpson said as he apologized to his colleagues on the floor of the House chamber. "I am no different than 90 percent of my constituents and my neighbors."

Simpson is one of millions of Gulf Coast residents who were affected by Hurricane Katrina in September. Simpson was, however, not bitter or morose. In fact, he had risen to thank all those who had come to the aid of his constituents in the aftermath of the most destructive natural disaster in U.S. history.

In a scene that had played out more than 36 years before, Representative Simpson read the same speech that his father, Representative Jim Simpson, St., had delivered on Aug. 27, 1969, in the wake of Hurricane Camille.

The elder Simpson referred to a new light on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Camille. "This light comes from the north, the east and the west and every point in this great state and generous nation," the younger Simpson read. "This light is called hope."

For many in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, hope is all that is left. Hurricane Katrina devastated homes, businesses and communities. Katrina packed sustained winds of 140 m.p.h, and an accompanying storm surge of 20 feet to 30 feet. Hurricane Camille in 1969 was more intense. It made landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast with 190 m.p.h, sustained winds. But Katrina's effects were felt across a wider swath. Wind gusts in New Orleans exceeded 100 m.p.h., 90 m.p.h. in Biloxi and 80 m.p.h, in Mobile, Ala.

Initially, it appeared that New Orleans had weathered the storm with relatively little damage. But the water in Lake Pontchartrain continued to rise in the hours following the storm. Several breaches occurred in the intricate system of levies surrounding New Orleans and 80 percent of the city was soon under some 20 feet of water.

Representative Emile "Peppi" Bruneau represents Louisiana's 94th legislative district near the 17th Street Canal where 75 percent to 85 percent of homes are uninhabitable. Bruneau, who has moved his legislative office to Baton Rouge, has spent 10 to 12 hours a day on the phone helping constituents since the hurricane.

"People want some answers with respect to their homes," he says. "New Orleans was a great town and is a great town. We'll be back better than before."

EVACUEES EVERYWHERE

As the water in New Orleans continued to rise, the entire country looked on in horror. States from Alaska to Maine mobilized search and rescue teams, law enforcement officials and the National Guard. State emergency management agencies began to prepare for the influx of evacuees from the affected areas.

In the week following Katrina's landfall, Texas took in more than 350,000 evacuees from Louisiana. At least 34 other states prepared to house evacuees in sports arenas, convention and civic centers, and former military bases. Gulf Coast residents who fled in advance of the storm or who were evacuated afterwards ended up in all 50 states.

Texas Senator and NCSL President-elect Leticia Van de Putte, a registered pharmacist, was part of the medical team processing and caring for evacuees at Kelly USA, the former Kelly Air Force Base, in San Antonio.

"I was particularly struck by the compassion shown toward the evacuees by my fellow Texans," says Van de Putte. "Many of the evacuees who were processed at Kelly had come from the Superdome and had endured a harrowing experience. They were dirty, tired, hungry and thirsty."

As the evacuees poured in, Senator Van de Putte found herself representing a district that had swollen by nearly 40,000 people in a matter of a few days. Van de Putte spent many nights making notes as she plied her trade at the evacuee center. During the day, she would go to work in her legislative office trying to find policy solutions to much of what she saw the night before.

Senator Van de Putte wonders about the long-term effects on the children of their experiences before being evacuated from New Orleans. As she made her rounds through the children's rooms at Kelly USA, Van de Putte could not help but notice the pictures that the children had drawn.

"All of them included water--black water," she says. "There were no yellows, oranges or other bright colors in any of the drawings. If this is what they were drawing, I worry about the long-term effects on the children of this horrible ordeal."

Getting to all those who were trapped by the rising flood waters was no small task. Senator Walter Boasso, whose house was devoured by flood waters, represents St. Bernard Parish south of New Orleans. When the storm passed, many believed they had dodged a bullet. Then the levees were breached and St. Bernard Parish was flooded.

That was just the beginning of the ordeal for Boasso and others in St. Bernard. The senator and his constituents waited more than three days before any help from local, state or federal officials arrived. Then Hurricane Rita blew through weeks later, and Boasso and his St. Bernard Parish constituents found their homes underwater again.

MISSISSIPPI CHALLENGES

Meanwhile, officials in Mississippi began sorting through the rubble. The casino town of Biloxi was damaged beyond recognition. Structures that had survived Hurricane Camille 36 years before were gone without a trace.

Of particular concern to Mississippi was the loss of the two major economic engines on the Gulf Coast: casinos and the military. Half of Mississippi's casinos were destroyed or heavily damaged. Gulf Coast casinos pay more than $500,000 per day to state, county and local governments. Casinos along the coast were forced to lay off more than 17,000 employees; more than 20,000 jobs rely indirectly on the casino industry.

Keesler Air Force Base was severely crippled by the storm, so many of the active duty personnel were reassigned elsewhere.

Mississippi Representative Michael Janus, whose legislative district included two casinos, says that Hurricane Katrina has devastated many of his constituents. He is helping them cut through the bureaucratic red tape as they put their lives back together.

"I used to easily be able to juggle my three jobs as a husband and father, as a contractor and as a legislator," he says. "Now I am so overwhelmed with constituent work that I have to do all three at the same time."

As part of his efforts to help constituents get back on their feet, Janus and other Gulf Coast legislators supported a measure during a special session of the Mississippi Legislature to allow casinos to move 800 feet ashore. Previously, Mississippi casinos were required to be built upon barges in the Mississippi Sound, making them susceptible to hurricanes.

Representative Janus believes that moving the casinos ashore will allow the gaming industry to compliment better the natural attributes of the region. "I'd like to think that Biloxi will be akin to a 'Monte Carlo of the Gulf Coast,'" Janus says, negating the idea that Mississippi could end up with the extravagance of Las Vegas. "Being that the casinos will be able to be bigger and better onshore, they will also be able to incorporate the cultural identity and natural beauty that is associated with the Mississippi coast."

A COMMUNITY RESPONDS

Many state legislators whose districts Katrina spared responded by rolling up their sleeves to come to the aid of their colleagues. Tired of watching as people suffered inside the Louisiana Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center, Senator Cleo Fields, a Baton Rouge-area legislator, hired three Greyhound buses to rescue people from the flooding, powerless city.

The help didn't just come from within the affected states. Wisconsin Senator Cathy Stepp received a call from her husband Paul, a trucking company owner. Paul Stepp was driving a tractor-trailer full of donated supplies to the affected region when his rig rolled off an embankment and caught fire.

According to Senator Stepp, "Paul's first words to me were to assure me of his physical well-being. His next words were of despair at the destruction of the donated goods."

ISSUES AHEAD

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita--and most recently Wilma--many policymakers at the state, local and federal levels are gaining knowledge from their experiences to be better prepared the next time disaster strikes. Emergency preparedness, public health and safety, insurance regulation and the environment are all areas that will receive a great deal of scrutiny.

As evacuees continue to apply for government services in the locales in which they settle, the process of sorting out who pays for what will be a complicated one. Senator Van de Putte said Texas has absorbed a great deal of costs associated with hurricane victims.

"My local hospital amassed more than $3 million in uncompensated care for the month after the hurricane," she says. "The hospital doesn't have the capacity to absorb those costs. Who is going to pay for that?"

Representative Bruneau is focused on his constituents' loss of homes and property. He believes that states should look at the products offered by the insurance industry. Despite practicing law for 40 years, Bruneau said he had a hard time deciphering the language in his own insurance policies.

"The issue of what's covered under an insurance policy is not one that is unique to Louisiana," he says. "Insurance policies should be written in plain English so that everyone can understand what is covered and what is not."

Massachusetts Senator Richard Moore, a former assistant director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and New York Senator Mike Balboni, author of his state's anti-terrorism law, will lead a group of state legislators and legislative staff that will investigate best practices in emergency preparedness. They will work through NCSL's Task Force on Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Although states will focus attention on increasing their own levels of emergency preparedness, they will also be looking for ways to collaborate with their federal counterparts. The challenge, according to state lawmakers, for the country during this difficult time is to strike a balanced, effective and intergovernmental approach to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

William Wyatt is NCSL's public affairs manager in the Washington, D.C. office.