There's a lot of devastation, but it's not officially a disaster area, the low-lying areas in Hancock County, Mississippi flooded after Hurricane Gustav, damaging dozens of homes.

Hundreds of residents there say they need help but have been forgotten.

WWL-TV

"Everything Katrina didn't blow off, Gustav blew off," said Robert Parker of his temporary cottage issued by the State of Mississippi.

The home was issued to him after Katrina. It still appeared perfectly intact on the outside, but being steps away from the Gulf of Mexico, floodwaters swallowed the cottage, tearing it apart inside.

Since then, Parker says he's slept in his car, because he says the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency won't help him.

"I've yet to speak to one person who has given me any solidified information whatsoever," said Parker. "I told them we're homeless, we have no running water, no sewage, no ice and nothing to eat down here."

It's a story Rhonda Rhodes says she has heard consistently for the last three weeks. Rhodes is the interim director of the Housing Resource Center for Hancock County. She estimates at least 300 families are displaced, and local resources are scarce.

"To date we have not received that federal declaration of disaster that includes individual assistance, so there's no provision in state or local plans for emergency housing for people who have no place to go," said Rhodes.

One rule of thumb used in determining whether an area is recommended for disaster declaration providing individual assistance is based on having at least 100 uninsured homes in the community destroyed by the storm. In Hancock County, there were hundreds of dwellings damaged, but most were FEMA trailers and Katrina cottages that were insured.

Residents say, either way, they are still without a place to live.

"Sometimes I feel we are the lone voice crying out in the forest. I feel I'm yelling from the rooftops and no one is hearing me," Rhodes said.

MEMA Executive Director Mike Womack says residents' claims that there is no help is not true.

"This is quite frankly the first I've heard of someone living in their car because they could not get assistance from my agency," he said.

Womack says MEMA, much like FEMA for residents in damaged FEMA trailers, is offering hotel rooms that some residents have turned down. They also have a plan to replace damaged cottages in properly zoned areas, but that will take time.

Womack says it is possible residents are not calling the right people for that assistance. And, he adds, there is no guarantee that any disaster declaration will ever come.

"We were definitely damaged by the storm but not to the levels of other places, and I think FEMA is trying to process declarations for the hardest hit areas first," he said.

It's time that is ticking away for residents in Hancock County, and taxing local agencies, where many workers say the situation is getting worse everyday.

"In four to six weeks they may be in a home but they will still be back to square one without having furniture, appliances, and basic household goods," said Rhodes. "That's going to be hard for them."

If you live in a Katrina cottage and want help from MEMA, you must call your assigned housing advisor. If you want to help Gustav victims in Hancock County, call 228-467-9048, or send a donation to the Hancock Community Development Foundation.