Nevada to accept about 800 refugees

Stephen Curran and Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005 | 11:29 a.m.

Citizens are encouraged to donate to the American Red Cross. For more information, call 791-3311 or visit the group's Web site at www.redcrosslasvegas.org.

Nevada will be accepting about 800 of the people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina and Gov. Kenny Guinn will declare a state of emergency to qualify for federal funds to handle the arrivals, officials said this morning.

Mike Hillerby, Guinn's chief of staff, said state and local officials worked through the weekend arranging for 500 of the homeless to live in the Las Vegas Valley and 300 in Northern Nevada. Las Vegas will be ready Thursday to accept the people and Northern Nevada will be ready Wednesday.

It's the start of what will likely be an unofficial surge in residents coming to the valley, as more have probably come out here to visit family or friends or are expected to do so in the future, county Manager Thom Reilly said.

Starting Wednesday, the "newest Nevadans" will be processed through an assessment center at the Fertitta Community Center, 1501 Las Vegas Blvd. North, where they will be screened for medical needs and children can be enrolled into local schools, Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid said.

"This is a work in progress," he said. "Many more people are going to arrive and we need to be prepared."

Reid and other county commissioners joined Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman this morning to announce the plan.

The 500 residents -- 300 of whom are expected to arrive Thursday -- will be flown into McCarran International Airport by federal officials, although three times that number could come here on their own, he said.

Lifelong New Orleans resident Sandra Sayles came to Las Vegas on Sunday and this morning said she was eager to start a new life with her grown daughter, Sydni Sayles-Long, who lives in Southern Nevada.

Hurricanes are nothing new for Sayles, who said she expected to be home after a couple days. Instead, Sayles and her three school-age grandchildren -- who began living with her after the death of their mother in February -- hopscotched the county, staying in Houston, Atlanta and Denver before arriving here, she said.

"I tried to explain it as a mini-vacation," Sayles said of how she explained the unexpected move to her 5-year-old grandson. "We thought we'd be gone for three days, then we'd come back and clean up."

Sayles, who hasn't been back to her house but has been told by friends and neighbors that her once quiet street is uninhabitable, came to the Clark County Government Center this morning to try to enroll her grandchildren in local schools as quickly as possible.

She's one of the lucky ones. Others who have no family or friends in Southern Nevada will be offered one of 150 rooms at Harrah's resorts in Las Vegas, Tom Jenkin, vice president of the Western division of Harrah's Entertainment, said.

The gaming giant, which operates several resorts in the battered region, was among the hardest hit by the disaster. Jenkin estimated that roughly 8,000 employees were affected by the storm.

"We were shocked by what a couple of weeks ago we thought was unimagineable," Jenkin said of the destruction.

Harrah's has joined the American Red Cross, United Way of Southern Nevada, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and other local nonprofit groups to assess the needs of displaced residents, many of whom will require housing here for up to six months.

Penney Towers, chief executive of the Southern Nevada chapter of the Red Cross, said the charity is encouraging donors to give money instead of clothing, which could require cleaning.

"We're all pulling together to do everything we can to diminish the stress and hardship of the evacuees from the affected areas of the Southeast," Towers said in a written statement. "Our neighbors in the Southeast have suffered so much devastation. We are working to do everything we can do bring hope and comfort to them."

Sayles still doesn't know just how much damage her home suffered. Now, she said, her priority is helping her grandchildren make the transition into life in Southern Nevada and looking for a job.

"It's tough, once you get here and you realize you have nothing," Sayles said. "Now you've really got to walk your talk about your faith in God."

State officials expect the evacuees will stay in Nevada two or three months, Hillerby said. The declaration of a state of emergency will allow for federal agencies to cover the costs of expenses such as housing, food and clothing.

He said he expected Nevadans to "be very excited" about giving a helping hand to the 800 who have been left homeless.

Keith Rheault, state superintendent of public instruction, said he will be issuing school districts guidance on how to accept the children. He said they can be immediately enrolled in school without paperwork from their former schools. He said once the children are in class, the schools can then start trying to gather the information from the former schools.