Word: houstons
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...Long lines, bureaucratic confusion, misleading rumors and painful disappointment have become part of the daily routine for many weary evacuees who, like the Green-Clark family, remain in Reliant Park nearly two weeks after being shuttled here from New Orleans. Of the 150,000 storm victims who fled to Houston from Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast since August 31, 27,000 were deposited in Houston's largest shelters. As of Tuesday morning, 3,760 are still here . Although they're grateful for the material and emotional support they've received, many evacuees are also growing increasingly frustrated...
...quickly snaked around the complex, and people fainted from heat exhaustion, prompting officials from both agencies to evict the evacuees who had stormed in from outside facilities, and shut down the system for the day. The Red Cross resumed its giveaway the following day with less chaos, though the Houston Chronicle reported that some recipients returned later to report that their cards weren't working. FEMA meanwhile, briefly resumed distribution then abruptly decided to discontinue its debit card program altogether and told anxious hurricane victims to apply for aid through its website or its toll-free number. The agency promised...
...want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." BARBARA BUSH, former First Lady, after meeting hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston...
...anyone from assuming that it reflected her feelings about the ineffectiveness of Bush's FEMA director, Michael Brown. When Bush decided to make a second trip into the state last week, Blanco learned about it from the media--and had to cancel her trip to visit evacuees in the Houston Astrodome. Blanco insists, however, that Washington and Baton Rouge are now on the same page. Bush, she said, "is disappointed by the response, given the immediacy of the need. We're both disappointed. But you know, that's the past, and we have to move into the future...
Just when things seemed to be stabilizing, another FEMA fiasco would light up the news wires. Last Thursday, as the Red Cross began distributing its own debit cards, thousands stood for hours in the 93° heat outside the Astrodome in Houston for FEMA cards that never came. A day earlier, Brown had heralded his agency's cards as a way to "empower" survivors "to start rebuilding their lives." But the agency scrapped the plan late Thursday, saying it would be more efficient for the government to deposit funds directly into evacuees' bank accounts...