Posted on 09/05/2005 10:48:27 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
Phase 1 of the government's plan to provide desperately needed transitional housing for tens of thousands of hurricane evacuees is scheduled to begin this morning, when homeless elderly people from various Texas locations board 30 buses destined for two Carnival cruise ships in Galveston, Tex.
Relief plans also call for housing evacuees in emergency trailers, hotels, motels, military bases and schools.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency chartered three vessels from Carnival Cruise Lines of Miami, the world's largest cruise-ship company, to lodge evacuees of Hurricane Katrina for up to six months. (All guests whose bookings have been canceled have been offered full refunds, according to the company).
The two ships, each capable of holding 2,600 people, will remain docked in Galveston; another, with an occupancy of 1,800, will be in Mobile, Ala. They will be used primarily for elderly victims and people with special health problems, with families a second priority, according to James McIntyre, a FEMA spokesman.
Red Cross personnel and the ship's medical team will be on board, but "this is not for those who are severely ill, it's for those who can be effectively independent," Mr. McIntyre said. Nor is it for those expecting luxuries associated with cruises.
"We bought a basic package without amenities - a room to live in, based on need, and food to eat," Mr. McIntyre said. "This is not about being bathed in luxury - it's to get people out of the Astrodome."
A FEMA spokesman said the agency has also put out a call to producers of "manufactured housing" and recreational vehicles - campers and the like - asking for assistance, and has placed orders for more than 50,000 trailers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
These cruise ships better be the six star rating if they expect to be accepted by New Orleans evacuees.
WOOOOOHOOOOO!!
Thanks for the ping!
BTW....did you ever hear the NUMBER of kids who are coming out here for schooling??
Personally, I think able-bodied male evacuees should be housed in tents, outside of the New Orleans city limits, where they could sleep and rest after they worked a normal shift helping to clean and recover their city, hopefully further upriver.
Why should they lounge on a cruise ship while our troops are there working on recovering bodies and cleaning the city up?
They don't go and work, cut off their "guvmint" check!!!
It's time to stop the free ride, that's what ended up causing a lot of this mess. A welfare state leaving people dependent on an AWOL local "guvmint."
YEA!!!!
I'm with you, FRiend.
Eff 'em - Work or starve.
Carnivals are the barf boats. I beleive these are the ones that have had that stomach virus.
Also, See post 8 in this thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1478165/posts
These are going to be used by the relief workers per DoD.
Fing NYT can't read the DoD press releases.
· The secretary of transportation is seeking DoD concurrence to use four Maritime Ready Reserve Fleet ships as temporary housing for relief workers;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1478176/posts
Illiterates at the NYT
Is Major Owens gonna accuse Bush of using the ships to seed the feeding patterns of sharks?
I thought I heard earlier that these ships were going to be used for the elderly, very young, and ill.
"I thought I heard earlier that these ships were going to be used for the elderly, very young, and ill."
The elderly,very young and ill will probably be on the USNS Comfort hospital ship or be evacuated out.
These boats are probably for the folks staying and working.
I heard they would be moored at Galveston and Mobile. Not sure of the distance, but I believe that is pretty far away for anyone working in New Orleans. I'll have to check and see if I can find that.
With a champagne brunch every day. They better have the Dom Perignon ready.
'when homeless elderly people from various Texas locations board 30 buses destined for two Carnival cruise ships in Galveston, Tex'
"Like old chap, this ship doesn't CRUISE anywhere! Let's go down to the dock and fix that" --- *HACK*
~~~~~~
New Orleans is a major containerized shipping port, and you can see hundreds of those empty, semi-trailer-sized containers floating around in train yards, etc. IOW, the containers are already on-site.
I propose that FEMA bring NO workers back as contractors and set up teams to :
Of course, I advocate using salvaged materials -- and displaced area workers -- wherever possible. And no unions!!!
Who knows -- if those folks work on building their own new homes, they might even take reasonable care of them -- unlike the case in the typical "projects".
Here is some from CNN on them;
Three Carnival cruise ships to aid Katrina relief
Saturday, September 3, 2005; Posted: 10:55 p.m. EDT (02:55 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. government has chartered three luxury cruise liners -- Ecstasy, Sensation and Holiday -- for the next six months to provide temporary housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina, Carnival Cruise Lines said Saturday.
Two of the ships, the Ecstasy and Sensation, have a maximum capacity of 2,606 each and will be based in Galveston, Texas, while the third boat, the Holiday, has a maximum capacity of 1,800 and will likely be docked in Mobile, Alabama, the Miami-based company said.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.cruise.reut/
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