Katrina Coverage

Some are complaining about FEMA's response to Hurricane Rita. A Houston evacuee center - originally for Katrina victims - reopened today, but was shortly shut down when some of the hundreds in line began fainting from the heat (about 90 degrees).

[FEMA spokesman Justin] Dombrowski said FEMA is asking refugees who do not need help right away to wait a few days. He also encouraged refugees to register with FEMA by telephone or the Internet.

Local officials, including Port Arthur Mayor Oscar Ortiz and Jefferson County Judge Carl Griffith, whose county includes Beaumont, said FEMA's response has been inadequate.

Griffith said he has asked [Texas Governor Rick] Perry to set up a commission to study the emergency response to Rita. Congress is holding hearings this week on the federal government's response to Katrina.

FEMA spokesman Ross Fredenburg in Austin said communications between Austin and rural East Texas have been troubled, in part because of power problems. But he said FEMA had set up 27 distribution points in 27 southeastern Texas cities.

"I don't know what could have been done better since the materials were in place before the hurricane," Fredenburg said. "We're doing everything we can to get water and ice to whomever remains."

About 432,000 customers were without power in Texas on Wednesday.

To get the power back on in Southeast Texas, Perry asked the U.S. Department of Energy to sign a waiver allowing Entergy to plug into CenterPoint Energy's power source on the state's main electric grid and transmit it from Houston into the affected areas.

Entergy is not usually hooked up to Texas' main grid, its whole service area loses power when one part sustains significant damage.

Once the temporary lines are in place, much of Entergy's service area will regain power immediately, said Paul Hudson, chairman of the state's Public Utility Commission.

But it could take three to four weeks to restore power in the hardest hit areas, where nearly all transmission lines are down and homes are so damaged they can't safely receive electricity, Hudson said.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2005 at 4:22 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.