After months of pressure from Louisiana lawmakers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency says it won't seek reimbursement of emergency funds from college students flooded out of residence halls by Hurricane Katrina if they demonstrate the student housing was their primary residence for at least six of the 12 months before the hurricane. Students who already have repaid their grants, as requested by FEMA in what the agency conceded were sometimes "draconian" letters, will be reimbursed if they qualify under the new guidelines.
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EARLIER: Louisiana has received about $2.75 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as reimbursement for Hurricane Katrina-related repairs at two New Orleans universities. The larger amount, about $1.5 million, pays for building temporary dehumidifiers to stop the spread of mold in the buildings on Southern University at New Orleans' Pontchartrain Park campus. In the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina, The the campus was submerged for weeks in water as deep as 11 feet. About $1.25 million is for repairs to a high-tech welding machine that the University of New Orleans' engineering department operates at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Michoud facility in eastern New Orleans.
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