Tuesday, September 23, 2008
FEMA DOES IT AGAIN (IT DID NOT LEARN)
by Dave Gerber of RVINEWS
BEAUMONT, Texas -- In its first major test in three years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has come under scrutiny for failing to develop a long-term housing plan for the more than 1 million evacuees from the Texas gulf coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
Faced with criticism, FEMA has agreed to pay a month of hotel expenses for some evacuees from the hardest-hit areas. But in a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Thursday, local officials expressed concern that there was no longer-range plan for residents whose homes in devastated areas such as Galveston, Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange will be uninhabitable indefinitely.
With 32,000 people in shelters across the state and thousands more living in hotels and with relatives or friends, Texas officials said they are anticipating a housing strain on the area, which already has a shortage of apartments and other rental units. Meanwhile, the housing burden has fallen on state shelters, which were initially set up as an emergency resource and could now be forced to remain open longer.
According to Zachary Thompson, director of the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Resources, FEMA should have established programs with housing agencies across the state in advance of the storm or immediately afterward, so that apartments and Section 8 housing could be readily identified. Those are lessons that should have been learned from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, he said.
"We have seen this movie before. It happened with Katrina," Thompson said. "When you evacuate the majority of residents from an impacted city, the game plan for the federal government should be to look at housing needs. People clearly can't go back to Galveston.
"The shelters were put in place to get people out of harm's way. The next step is up to FEMA. No city in America is set up to handle long-term shelters," he said.
FEMA spokesman Marty Bahamonde said the agency is working with real estate agents in Houston and other parts of Texas and Louisiana to identify vacancies. He said the agency would pay rentals for up to 18 months.
"We try to find temporary housing and hope things will change down there so they can go back in 30 days," Bahamonde said.
He said FEMA is also looking for mobile homes in the area that can be rented, but the agency has abandoned the controversial travel trailer program, which provided housing for Katrina and Rita evacuees for months after the storms. FEMA was criticized for taking too long to get people into the trailers initially and for allowing people to stay in them after learning the units were a health risk.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
BEAUMONT, Texas -- In its first major test in three years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has come under scrutiny for failing to develop a long-term housing plan for the more than 1 million evacuees from the Texas gulf coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
Faced with criticism, FEMA has agreed to pay a month of hotel expenses for some evacuees from the hardest-hit areas. But in a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Thursday, local officials expressed concern that there was no longer-range plan for residents whose homes in devastated areas such as Galveston, Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange will be uninhabitable indefinitely.
With 32,000 people in shelters across the state and thousands more living in hotels and with relatives or friends, Texas officials said they are anticipating a housing strain on the area, which already has a shortage of apartments and other rental units. Meanwhile, the housing burden has fallen on state shelters, which were initially set up as an emergency resource and could now be forced to remain open longer.
According to Zachary Thompson, director of the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Resources, FEMA should have established programs with housing agencies across the state in advance of the storm or immediately afterward, so that apartments and Section 8 housing could be readily identified. Those are lessons that should have been learned from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, he said.
"We have seen this movie before. It happened with Katrina," Thompson said. "When you evacuate the majority of residents from an impacted city, the game plan for the federal government should be to look at housing needs. People clearly can't go back to Galveston.
"The shelters were put in place to get people out of harm's way. The next step is up to FEMA. No city in America is set up to handle long-term shelters," he said.
FEMA spokesman Marty Bahamonde said the agency is working with real estate agents in Houston and other parts of Texas and Louisiana to identify vacancies. He said the agency would pay rentals for up to 18 months.
"We try to find temporary housing and hope things will change down there so they can go back in 30 days," Bahamonde said.
He said FEMA is also looking for mobile homes in the area that can be rented, but the agency has abandoned the controversial travel trailer program, which provided housing for Katrina and Rita evacuees for months after the storms. FEMA was criticized for taking too long to get people into the trailers initially and for allowing people to stay in them after learning the units were a health risk.
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
