State ready for at least 1,000 Katrina victims; Multistate emergency deal sought

Monterey County Herald
By SETH HETTENA
Associated Press
7 September 2005

Officials throughout California on Tuesday prepared to take in at least 1,000 Gulf Coast refugees, while state and federal lawmakers began to assess the state's own level of preparedness for a major disaster.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that the state had accepted a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to take in 1,000 Louisiana and Mississippi residents left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. State officials told their FEMA counterparts that they would find a home for them, Schwarzenegger said.

The governor said 600 refugees will be housed temporarily in San Diego, where officials were preparing a shelter in the San Diego State University gymnasium. In San Francisco, volunteers were preparing a vast emergency shelter underneath a San Francisco cathedral that will temporarily house at least 300 refugees. The remaining 100 will live in San Jose.

''If we get a request from FEMA to bring in more people to California, we will do so,'' said Schwarzenegger, speaking at a school event in San Diego. ''We will have places for them, and we will make sure they get treated the right way.''

Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the governor's Office of Emergency Services, said FEMA had not yet sent notification that any of the 1,000 refugees were on their way.

The governor's announcement came as lawmakers in Sacramento drafted legislation to join a multistate emergency management compact and members of the state's congressional delegation sought information about California's preparedness for a large-scale calamity.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco, and Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, wrote a letter to the commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers pressing for repairs to the deteriorating levees along the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta.

Feinstein and Pombo co-sponsored legislation last year authorizing $90 million in federal money for the task, but it has yet to be appropriated by Congress.

''A major breach in these levees could imperil hundreds of thousands of people and endanger most of the state's water supply,'' Feinstein said in a statement released Tuesday. ''As we have seen in New Orleans, it would be a dramatic mistake to further delay the repairs that are necessary to protect communities from the ravages of floodwaters.''

In Sacramento, lawmakers were crafting a bill that would clear the way for California to join the Emergency Management Assessment Compact. The compact is an interstate agreement to allow emergency personnel to travel quickly to other states to assist with recovery efforts. California and Hawaii are the only states that haven't joined.

Legislative efforts to join stalled earlier this year over objections from the California Professional Firefighters Union, which expressed concern that the compact could rob them of key benefits and make them vulnerable to lawsuits in other states.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said Democrats were hoping to develop new language for the bill that would allow the state to join the compact while addressing the firefighters' concerns.

''We're looking at that, and certainly are probably going to take action on that as soon as issues get resolved,'' Nunez said after a meeting with Schwarzenegger and other legislative leaders.

California has endured its share of disasters over the years, from the deadly Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes to devastating wildfires, floods and mudslides. But lawmakers said the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina across the Gulf Coast should prompted a fresh look at the state's readiness for a disaster of that magnitude.

The concern has grown in the wake of an oft-quoted FEMA assessment report filed before the 2001 terrorist attacks. The agency said a major earthquake in San Francisco was among the three largest potential disasters facing the United States, along with a terrorist attack in New York and a hurricane strike in New Orleans.
In San Diego, Schwarzenegger said the state's Office of Emergency Services was doing a ''great job'' and praised its director, Henry Renteria, as a ''great leader.'' But besides a state disaster plan, Schwarzenegger said California families need to have supplies of food, water, cell phones, batteries and flashlights on hand if there is a major catastrophe.

Meanwhile, local authorities and private individuals were stepping up to make room for other refugees if California is asked to take more in the future. Los Angeles county and city officials were planning to accommodate at least 2,000 people. Sacramento County is preparing for the arrival of 300 refugees.

San Diego businessman David Perez, who said he was frustrated by the sluggish recovery efforts in New Orleans, chartered a Boeing 737 and flew 80 people from Louisiana to San Diego.

''Everyone is coming together here,'' Schwarzenegger said.