A tale of two cities.

Biloxi and Pascagoula are two towns in Mississippi. Both were hit hard by Katrina and had roughly the same amount of debris to remove. Biloxi opted to use private contactors; Pascagoula agreed to let the US Army Corps of Engineers manage the debris removal. By the end of December the difference was clear. For roughly half the price the private contractors were nearly done and the Corps is still struggling with paperwork.

Why is the Corps involved in debris removal?