FEMA cancels a housing program
Tags: femaBATON 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."
…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."
