Wednesday, September 07, 2005
BOSTON — Massachusetts suspended plans to house some 2,500 Hurricane Katrina refugees on Cape Cod last night after federal officials told the governor and the leaders of other states that many of the survivors want to remain closer to home.
"Many evacuees prefer to remain in the region as they resolve issues concerning the status of property, employment and the safety of loved ones," said an urgent announcement to the states by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The notice did not explain how long the states should remain on standby, but Gov. Mitt Romney pledged to remain ready if Massachusetts is needed to help with the relief effort.
Earlier in the day, state lawmakers and Romney quickly rushed a bill through that would allocate $25 million, to provide housing, food, clothing and medical treatment for the evacuees for about 60 days.
State officials expected that many of the evacuees, who were to be sheltered for several weeks at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, may ultimately decide to remain in Massachusetts.
But Romney said the long-term goal is to help the displaced families to become self-sufficient in the community as quickly as possible.
State Rep. Daniel E. Bosley, D-North Adams, said one critical issue will be putting the children of evacuee families back into school.
He said his wife's cousin lives in Mississippi north of the Gulf Coast area, and the local school system was shut down for two weeks so that it could integrate students from the coastal area damaged by the hurricane.
"We need to put the kids into school and we need to find the parents jobs. We need to think longer term, not just short term solutions," Bosley said. "We'll have to take on these challenges one at a time."
A friendly haven Oneonta gives New Orleans refugees welcome
By ELAINE WITT / BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD
ONEONTA — By Thursday, T.J. Lowry couldn't take it any more.
He had seen the TV footage of desperate people who'd been waiting for days for a way out of New Orleans.
He'd heard Mayor Ray Nagin's pleas for buses.
He started calling charter services until he found one in Meridian, Miss., that for $2,400 would help him collect a load of people in New Orleans and deliver them to Alabama.
And by Friday night, Lowry, a former Peace Corps volunteer, his father, Tom Lowry, and Oneonta lawyer Bob Bentley were on a highway overpass in Metairie, La., preparing to bring 53 bedraggled souls back to the rural Blount County community of Oneonta.
As they waited in a line of buses to receive their human cargo, Tom Lowry, a State Farm agent, began to have doubts.
"When we rode in, you could see the faces of the people lined up. You could tell they were just waiting to get on that bus. They were all black people, and we were going to Oneonta, Ala. I didn't know how the community would respond or how the people from New Orleans would respond to the community."
At this point in telling his story outside a corrugated metal church that has been transformed into a shelter, Tom Lowry broke down in grateful sobs Monday afternoon.
The town — his town — a mostly white community of 6,300, came through beyond his imaginings.
A few hours later, when the bus pulled up to the local Methodist church, it seemed half the town was there — with food, cots, clothing and open arms.
Each evacuee was personally greeted and escorted into the church. After a meal, the operation moved to the metal Assemblies of God church on Alabama 75 — a church called simply The Church at Oneonta.
For more see: http://www.postherald.com/katrina.shtml
I knew this was going to happen. I said it on another thread - that most of these people are not going to want to go to someplace like Massachusetts.
I wouldn't come here either if I had a choice.