Storms 411

2 mln displaced by hurricanes Katrina, Rita: US agency

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency Thursday sharply increased its count of people displaced from the Gulf Coast by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to about 2 million people.

According to a news release, FEMA is paying rental assistance to 685,635 families whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the Aug. 29 and Sept. 24 storms, an increase of 167,000, or 32 percent, over a month ago. FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews attributed the rise to a reporting error.

In December, the agency counted only recipients of a transitional housing assistance program created on Sept. 23, the spokeswoman said. Shortly before Christmas, FEMA discovered that it had not counted families receiving rental assistance under a traditional disaster aid program, she said.

"We've never had a situation where an entire American city was evacuated, and they weren't able to go home," she said. "These numbers represent that phenomenon."

The figure exceeds initial post-hurricane estimate of 300,000 displaced families and an October estimate by FEMA to Congress of 450,000 to 600,000 households. FEMA officials generally estimate three people per household as a rule of thumb.

Judge orders extension of Katrina hotel program

FEMA pays for 41,000 rooms in 47 states and D.C.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- A program that put Hurricane Katrina evacuees in hotels must be extended until February 7, a month beyond the deadline set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval's temporary restraining order is part of a class-action lawsuit filed in November by advocates for hurricane victims.

Attorneys pressing the lawsuit said FEMA should not be allowed to end the hotel program because it has failed to provide other housing aid, such as rental assistance checks, to many victims who qualify for it. [Read more - CNN]

Day 88 – 11/17/05, Houston mayor fumes over deadline to get evacuees out of hotels

HOUSTON -- Mayor Bill White has complained in an angry letter to the federal government that FEMA blindsided city officials with a new deadline of Dec. 1 to move Katrina refugees out of hotels.

White also objected to a mandate that refugees move into apartments with three-month leases, noting that few landlords offer such short leases, thereby sharply reducing the number of FEMA-qualified apartments.

"Why would FEMA restrict or eliminate the supply of apartments at the same time we are trying to move 19,000 people out of more costly hotels?" he said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. [Read more - WWLTV]

Day 87 – 11/16/05, FEMA pushing more stable housing for hurricane evacuees

WASHINGTON (AP) — FEMA is stepping up the pressure on an estimated 53,000 families still staying in hotel rooms after losing their homes to hurricanes Katrina and Rita to get into longer-term housing by the end of the month.

The agency said Tuesday it will stop paying hotel bills Dec. 1 for most of the families even though housing advocates say they fear they won't have enough time to find other places.

Most of the people still staying in hotels and motels are in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had previously set the December deadline as a goal to have evacuees out of hotels and into travel trailers, mobile homes or apartments until they find permanent homes. [Read more - NOLA]

US spending £6m a day on hotels for Hurricane Katrina evacuees

The US government is spending more than £6m a day to house people affected by Hurricane Katrina in hotels. The hotel bill has grown as officials struggle to meet a deadline imposed by George Bush to move all evacuees out of emergency shelters by the middle of October.

The news comes two weeks after it emerged that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) had agreed to pay $236m (£134m) to a cruise liner firm to provide housing on three ships.

Nearly 600,000 people so far have been placed in 10,000 hotel rooms in the US, and the bill is expected to rise to $425m over the next two weeks. [Read more - Guardian]

Hilton Hotels, the parent company of Hampton Inn and other brands asking evacuees to leave

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. -- At least one hotel chain has asked some Hurricane Katrina refugees to check out so it can honor the reservations of incoming guests.

Hilton Hotels, the parent company of Hampton Inn and other brands, is trying to find other rooms for the evacuees but said they were warned when they checked in that their stays would be limited by room availability, said Hilton spokeswoman Kathy Shepard.

"We're doing our very best to accommodate these people," she said.

It's an uncomfortable situation for the hotel industry: risk bad publicity for kicking out hurricane refugees, or anger big-spending repeat customers who travel for business.

Hurricane refugees -- often several family members packed into a single hotel room -- can be a burden on hotel staff. They also use more water and electricity, and do not spend much on food and incidentals. [Read more - WWLTV]

60 Unflooded Buses Found, Yet Another Evacuation Horror Story

Wizbang found 60+ UNFLOODED buses in New Orleans that could have been used to evacuate people who stayed behind when Katrina hit. This picture was taken the Wednesday AFTER Katrina struck the city:

Day 30 – 9/20/05, St. Bernard Halts Re-Entry, Calls for Evacuation

St. Bernard Parish officials on Monday halted the return of parish residents and called for a mandatory evacuation starting tomorrow, as Tropical Storm Rita churned into the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to affect the parish.

Officials made the decision after a conference call in which Corps of Engineers officials said Katrina’s damage to the parish’s levees means the area is vulnerable to even a small surge.

Earlier today, officials announced they would let in those residents scheduled to come in tomorrow, but would close the parish for the rest of the week. They said, however, that the parish is too much at risk to let people in.

The storm is projected to hit Texas. But Katrina, which flooded almost the entire parish with as much as 20 feet of water, destroyed much of the levees that protect the parish.

“We’re starting all over again. The only difference is I don’t have as many people to evacuate,” said Larry Ingergiola, the parish’s emergency preparedness director.

Day 19 – 9/9/05, Doomed Nursing Home Had Offer of Bus Transport

Coroner says owner snubbed help until it was too late

Less than 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina began ravaging St. Bernard Parish with 140 mph winds and a 20-foot storm surge, Coroner Bryan Bertucci made an urgent call to the owner of St. Rita's Nursing Home near Poydras.

"I told her I had two buses and two drivers who could evacuate all 70 of her residents and take them anywhere she wanted to go," he said.

But Mabel Mangano refused the offer. "She told me, 'I have five nurses and a generator, and we're going to stay here,'" Bertucci said.

It turned out to be a tragic decision.

On Wednesday, nine days after the storm had passed, Bertucci watched as a dozen workers from a federal agency that specializes in handling mass casualties began the gruesome task of removing about 30 decomposing bodies from the still-flooded nursing home.

On Thursday, Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. announced he's launching an investigation into the deaths at the nursing home. [Read more - NOLA]

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Day 18 – 9/8/05, Stragglers' Resistance Waning

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- It's dark. It's shirt-soaking hot. And the only word to describe the heavy odor is "indescribable." But they wouldn't leave.

Even the sight of human corpses tied to banisters to stop their drifting have failed to drive off straggling New Orleanians.

But police are coming, and they're armed with the mayor's order to forcibly remove anyone who refuses to leave the flooded cesspool of a city.

Police Chief Eddie Compass said officers will use "the minimal amount of force" in evacuations.

Officials doubt it will come to that. Finally, they said, most holdouts are ready to give in.

"Some are finally saying, 'I've had enough,'" Michael Keegan of Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Associated Press. "They're getting dehydrated. They are running out of food. There are human remains in different houses. The smells mess with your psyche." [Read more - CNN]

Again, help the Red Cross help others. Give generously. Thanks!