WSJ: Agency Cancels A Housing Plan For Evacuees

[question everything]

Agency Cancels A Housing Plan For Evacuees

By JEFF D. OPDYKE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 6, 2005; Page B1

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Even as the Federal Emergency Management Agency struggles to provide temporary housing for hundreds of thousands of displaced storm victims, the disaster-relief organization has ordered the abrupt end to a high-priority program to help restart key businesses by providing housing for displaced workers. Louisiana officials expressed outrage that FEMA was shuttering what many saw as the one program that effectively got evacuees into temporary shelter and back into the work force near New Orleans. The effort had placed about 6,000 Louisiana workers in nearly 2,400 travel trailers at industrial sites across hurricane-ravaged southeast Louisiana. Most were at large refineries owned by energy and chemical giants including Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Murphy Oil Corp., Dow Chemical Co., DuPont and Monsanto Co.

State officials familiar with the situation say that FEMA stepped in to shut down the program on Sept. 30. The federal agency distributed a memo that day from Daniel A. Craig, director of the recovery division, stating that while FEMA has received requests from various state and local officials to provide housing for employees of companies disrupted or damaged by Hurricane Katrina, "the first requirement for ... housing is that the entity must provide a service essential to the restoration of the community."

(snip)

State officials scoff at FEMA's stance. They point out that when the program began about a week after Katrina hit, President Bush stopped by one of the first trailer sites, a Folgers coffee plant in New Orleans owned by Procter & Gamble Co., where 113 trailers had been packed onto parking lots. The president praised the effort to get the plant running, saying, "There's progress being made in this part of the world … Behind me you see temporary housing -- this company has provided housing for the folks who work here." A White House spokeswoman said yesterday that the administration was aware of the situation and remains confident in FEMA's efforts to provide temporary housing for storm victims.

Those familiar with the program say the assistance wasn't aimed at businesses but at their workers. Moreover, they say, the people living in the trailers all had FEMA disaster-claim numbers to prove they were eligible to live in the two-bedroom 8-foot-by-35-foot trailers. State officials argue that the FEMA program that processes each worker individually will take far too much time and impair companies that need to be back on their feet immediately.

(snip)

Trailers hadn't yet made it to the retailers themselves before FEMA stopped the program. A list obtained by the Journal shows that more than 225 companies had either received or requested trailers. Names range from giant bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. to Mimi's Italian & Seafood Restaurant in River Ridge, La. A secretary in the state's economic development agency says interest in the trailer program has been so intense that a team of five department workers has been handling several hundred calls a day.

(snip)

State officials say the day FEMA killed the program the agency delivered a pamphlet outlining the environmental reviews that must be done for each trailer site. That review encompasses everything from hazard materials and air, water and soil concerns to endangered species. "The only endangered species down here now are Louisianans," says one state official. "And with a little help, they might actually survive." FEMA's spokesman says "we want to help the state, but the state has to help us. We need to make sure the money is going to the right people. We have to justify who is getting these homes."

Write to Jeff D. Opdyke at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112855995016461243.html (subscription)

[rodeodance]

1. what the fricking heck is going on?

[Erika]

2. Government out of control

W could possibly hande a T ball game, but that's it. Just think of the Iraqi war and the economy. W is useless. We have no intelligent source in charge.

[question everything]

3. And this is what Edwards pointed out when talked to Jon Stewart (nt)

[OneBlueSky]

4. quite simply, they DO NOT want poor blacks returning to NO . . .

in large numbers . . . might hinder their plan to buy up property at a nickel on the dollar and put in hi-rises, Starbucks, and DisneyWorld New Orleans . . .