FEMA scrambles to house first responders

[Guest guest]

FEMA scrambles to house first responders

By Darcé

Staff writer

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdat

es/archives/2006_02_19.html#114276

As many as 147 New Orleans police officers might find themselves

homeless in 10 days when they and hundreds of other emergency

response workers are evicted from a pair of cruise ships that have

served as their homes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Federal

Emergency Management Agency officials said Sunday.

The officers are the only ones from the Police Department who

haven't yet told FEMA case workers whether they have arranged for

housing off the ships, said Tony , deputy coordinating

officer for FEMA's field office in New Orleans. " If you have not

talked to us about housing, March 1 is the date when the ships must

leave, " he said in a direct appeal to those officers.

FEMA officials are hoping to hear from some of the officers tonight

when the agency's community relations team conducts 6 p.m. meetings

on each ship to identify ship occupants who still need help finding

new places to live.

With many officers working longer hours in the next week because of

Carnival celebrations, concern is mounting that some will fail to

make new housing plans and will be left out in the cold, literally,

when the cruise ships sail away.

Even some officers who have had FEMA trailers placed next to their

damaged homes still cannot move in because the trailers lack one or

more basic services, such as electricity.

And the city runs the risk of losing more of its emergency response

workers if the longer-term housing that they acquire is cramped or

riddled with problems, said Lt. Benelli, president of the

Police Association of New Orleans.

" It's tantamount that we keep them here, " he said. " If officers

can't find housing where they can reunite with their families, then

the only option for them is to go join their family wherever they

are. It's quite concerning. "

The deadline to vacate the ships is nothing new. Occupants of the

Ecstasy and the Sensation have known for several months that they

would have to vacate the vessels so that their owner, Carnival

Cruise Lines, can return them to commercial service.

Both ships have been docked along downtown New Orleans wharves since

a few weeks after the hurricane, housing several thousand workers

and their families, including police, firefighters and emergency

medics who lost their houses but stayed on the job.

In a deal struck with Carnival to supply the ships along with a

third vessel, the Holiday, which is docked in Pascagoula, Miss.,

FEMA agreed to pay the company $192 million to use the ships and up

to $44 million more to cover profits Carnival would have made during

normal operations from on-board bars, casinos and tips.

FEMA also is returning the cruise ship Scotia Prince to its owner,

Scotia Prince Lines, on March 1. The Scotia Prince has been housing

about 600 St. Bernard residents along a dock in Violet. Those

occupants also have been asked to tell FEMA about their new housing

plans.

FEMA officials have been working closely with the New Orleans Police

Department and the New Orleans Police Foundation to find longer-term

housing for officers still living on the Ecstasy and Sensation,

said.

In some cases, officers have located apartments to rent, or they

have made repairs to their damaged homes and have moved back into

them. In other cases, FEMA has moved travel trailers onto their

property. But many others remain on the ships.

FEMA has tried to speed the delivery of travel trailers to those

officers, said, and some are being placed in trailers in a

group site behind Armstrong Park in the Treme neighborhood.

Other officers will be moved into a 117-unit apartment building on

Downman Road in eastern New Orleans that has been leased by FEMA for

the next 18 months, he said. The building was flooded after the

storm, but its owner repaired and renovated all the apartments, FEMA

spokesman Ronnie Simpson said.

Like FEMA, the foundation is trying to identify police officers who

still haven't found other places to live, said Bob Stellingworth,

the organization's director. Representatives from the group will be

asking police about their housing situation today when officers pick

up new uniforms at NOPD headquarters to replace the ones they lost

during Katrina.

At least 480 officers already have informed the foundation that they

have found new homes, Stellingworth said.

Some New Orleans firefighters have yet to find new housing, Fire

Department spokesman Greg said, but he couldn't say exactly

how many. " That number is changing constantly, " he said late Sunday

afternoon.

Another problem is the size of the FEMA trailers. NOPD

Superintendent Warren Riley has complained that the 250-square-foot

travel trailers supplied by FEMA are too small for his officers and

their families. He and foundation officials have asked for officers

to receive larger 800- or 1,000-square-foot mobile homes.

But a 30-year-old executive order signed by President is

standing in the way, said Henri Wolbrette, foundation chairman. The

order bars the government from supplying the larger trailers to

disaster victims, apparently because they might make the mobile

homes their permanent homes rather than rebuilding their damaged

houses.

Wolbrette said the foundation might appeal to the White House to

lift the order as it applies to police officers in New Orleans.

Darcé can be reached at kdarce@... or (504) 826-

3491.