DJ First Wave Of Katrina Evacuees Arrive In California

5 September 2005
Dow Jones Commodities Service
SAN DIEGO, Sep 05, 2005 (ODC via Comtex) --

Some 80 Gulf Coast evacuees who were rescued from the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina cheered and sobbed with relief after arriving here Sunday, part of the first wave of refugees headed to California.

The group landed at San Diego International Airport around 5 p.m. aboard a 737 jet that was chartered from Baton Rouge, La., by Carmel Valley businessman David Perez, said Chris Manning, Red Cross response coordinator.

Tears and shouts of jubilation met local officials who boarded the plane to welcome the evacuees to San Diego.

"There was just this release of raw emotion. They just about had me in tears," said Augie Ghio, the city's homeland security chief.

First to disembark was an elderly woman carried by her son. Up to 17 families - including 16 children, three dogs, two cats and a bird - were greeted by aid workers, chaplains and others before being transported to Kearny High School, which will serve as a temporary shelter until they can be shifted to hotels.

Class begins Tuesday for the students at Kearny High.

"The citizens of San Diego are opening their hearts, their homes and certainly are opening their arms," Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins said at a news conference Sunday.

Authorities said they wanted to give the evacuees one night of rest and privacy.

"These are men and women who lost everything," Ghio said.

Aid workers in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles were also preparing to host storm evacuees.

Some 300 families were expected in San Francisco and another 100 in San Jose, emergency officials said Sunday during a conference call. Meanwhile, the Red Cross was helping three families that arrived late Saturday and early Sunday by plane from the Gulf Coast and expected at least three more families to arrive within days, said Anne Maria Tafoya, Red Cross spokeswoman in Los Angeles.

Henry Renteria, director of California's Office of Emergency Services, said it's not yet known how many evacuees could end up in California.

"We are in contact with local cities and counties, especially the larger ones, in order to identify what capacities they have locally to take on further evacuees," he said.

Hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes after the hurricane drowned New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast last week. At least 17 other states, as well as Washington, D.C., have arranged to take in storm victims.

In San Francisco, the local Salvation Army and the faith-based community was working to arrange temporary housing.

"The most important thing is to get children stabilized and get them into schools," said Annemarie Conroy, director of the city's Office of Emergency Services and Homeland Security.

Initially families will go to a temporary shelter set up at St. Mary's Cathedral, while federal officials and the Red Cross determine a transitional housing plan, Conroy said.

In Los Angeles, the new arrivals were meeting with caseworkers Sunday and given money for food, clothing and emergency medical needs. Children also received teddy bears, Tafoya said.

Renteria said cities or counties that move outside the established procedure could risk not being reimbursed.

"It's not that if you do it first, you won't get reimbursed. It's if you don't do it according to the rules that were established by FEMA and the state, you could end up taking on expenses that are not deemed eligible," he said.

"If that's the case, the local jurisdiction will be responsible for those expenses," he said.

Renteria also said more than 900 first responders from the state are on the Gulf Coast. Those include search-and-rescue crews as well as eight swift-water rescue teams.

In addition, California has sent four disaster medical assistance teams, 30 incident-support team managers, 600 National Guard personnel and more than 100 California Highway Patrol Officers.

The CHP said 116 officers departed for the disaster area on Sunday along with 40 all-terrain vehicles and three helicopters.

"The OES is tracking resources being sent from California, ensuring enough resources remain in our state to adequately respond and recover in the event that we have an emergency here in the state of California," Renteria said.