Posted on 03/01/2006 12:09:15 PM PST by freepatriot32
NEW ORLEANS - Tour buses and rental trucks waited Wednesday morning to vacate police, firefighters and other Hurricane Katrina first-responders from cruise ships they've called home since the storm devastated the city in August.
The emergency workers and their families _ about 1,000 people in all _ were told they had to leave by March 1 because the ships must return to private service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.
It's the same deadline set for civilian evacuees living on cruise ships.
Agency spokesman David Passey said all the first-responders and their families will have a FEMA-sponsored place to live, but some may have to stay in hotels for a while. The agency has been working with the Police Foundation of New Orleans to try to find apartments in the city for them, Passey said.
Foundation executive director Bob Stellingworth said the group has already placed more than 100 police officers in apartments without FEMA's help. But Stellingworth said "the original plan to have them in apartments or trailers just isn't going to happen by March 1."
Putting first responders into travel trailers on anything more than an interim basis could prompt hundreds of firefighters and police to pull up stakes and go to work in other cities that already are courting them, including Houston and Dallas, Stellingworth said.
Where's the big, nationwide oversupply of housing when you need it?
First responders? It's been over 8 months.
I hope neither one of you has to use much math in your daily lives. The hurricane hit on August 29th. Six months ago today.
These people are policemen, firemen, EMT personnel, etc. 85% of the firemen and policemen in the city lost their homes. There is a shortage of housing in New Orleans. They could have left the city and gotten jobs in other cities but they are staying and doing their jobs on a daily basis because this is their home.
To call them freeloaders is either out of ignorance on the subject or just looking for laughs at somebody elses expense. If it's out of ignorance that can be corrected by doing some research and reading on the subject before just piling on. If it's just being cruel and having some laughs over somebody elses misfortune than I would take these "freeloaders" as you call them as neighbors over the two of you any day of the week.
OBTW: You proved my point they are not first responding all of the time and to use the term is to appeal to sympathy.
I went back over my post and I don't see where I called anyone a freeloader.
The term "first responder" is also used here in the North Ga. mountains. It's simply an easier way of saying police officer, firefighter and EMT, not an appeal for sympathy.
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