NEW ORLEANS, July 16 (UPI) -- A handful of Southern governors discussed emergency management assistance in New Orleans Sunday, a day after two of them toured Hurricane Katrina's devastation.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine toured the devastation with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco -- two of only a small number of governors who attended the 72nd annual meeting of the Southern Governors' Association, the Times Picayune newspaper reported Sunday.
In a symbolic gesture, Kaine and Blanco joined a group of corporate volunteers to install a framing wall for a house in a new community in the city's St. Claude neighborhood.
Fewer than half the association's 17 governors attended the meeting, which ends Monday, the newspaper said.
Besides emergency management assistance, attendees are discussing disaster preparedness, civil disturbances and terrorism, state-based health information systems, regional interoperability, and the privacy and security of electronic medical records.
The association's membership includes the governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia and West Virginia.
