Southern lawmakers among the homeless

WASHINGTON — An oak tree may be the only remains of the home where Sen. Trent Lott reared his family and joined other political leaders for a rocking-chair view of the sea.

Lott, R-Miss., learned from neighbors and relatives that the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina, rising as high as 30 feet, leveled his Pascagoula home along Mississippi's Gulf coast near the Alabama border.

Lott's press secretary, Susan Irby, said Lott's home was 154 years old and did not sustain water damage when Hurricane Camille hit in 1969. Irby said Lott and his wife were driving to Pascagoula yesterday to search for personal effects that may have survived the storm.

"He's among the many who have losses, and it has been a very emotional thing," Irby said.

Among those was another member of Congress, Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor, whose district includes Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and other devastated areas of southern Mississippi. Taylor's home in Bay St. Louis, to the west of Gulfport, also was destroyed.

Taylor's press secretary, Courtney Littig, said Taylor and his son reached the site by boat Tuesday to confirm that his home had been leveled.

Other lawmakers were unsure how their homes had fared. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents an area on the eastern side of New Orleans, left with his family before Katrina hit. Spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said Jefferson lives on a natural levee that has not had flooding problems previously but that it was "most likely" that it had suffered damage this time.

Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., sought refuge with his family in Baton Rouge and has not been able to check on the condition of his home in a New Orleans suburb, his office said.