County prepares for hurricane victims

By Timothy Pratt

Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

As one man unpacked metal wastepaper baskets and pencil holders and set them down in empty offices, another barked into a phone about 12-span fiber cable needed for Internet hookups -- and a cabdriver, his wife and their 7-month-old baby from New Orleans wandered in seeking help.

It was Tuesday, two days before the Fertitta Community Assistance Center at the downtown campus of Catholic Charities was officially turned into ground zero in the Las Vegas Valley for helping survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

The mood was chaotic, answers were few, hopes were high.

And by end of the day, estimates of how many people might be heading to the valley had grown from the 500 cited in morning press releases to several thousand, said Monsignor Patrick Leary, executive director of Catholic Charities -- meaning the assistance center may not be big enough to handle the crowds.

But Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said the plan needed to be tried out first, and if a larger site was needed, a move will be made.

The plan is to take planeloads of people fleeing the Gulf Coast to McCarran International Airport, give them medical screening at the airport and transport them to the assistance center for a meal and an array of services, such as housing, jobs, or school for children.

The screening will be provided by the Clark County Health District. The transportation from the airport, by the Regional Transportation Commission. Once at the assistance center, the Red Cross will have everyone fill out forms indicating their needs, Leary said.

Other agencies on board include Clark County Social Service, the Clark County School District, state welfare, U.S. Housing and Urban Development, which will try to provide housing, and Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, Leary said. The federal government will reimburse agencies for their costs, he added.

The nonprofit director also said he was concerned that the same fever-pitched scurrying seen Tuesday might quickly prove inadequate, citing a meeting that afternoon where it was revealed that several hundred people fleeing Katrina already in the valley had called the local Red Cross office after morning news reports announced the pending effort. As well, churches had taken in at least a hundred more.

These were above and beyond the 500 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to put on planes later this week, he said.

Leary said another site -- such as Cashman Field -- might wind up being more appropriate for the effort.

"Where I come in is, first of all, I have to run our existing programs. And second, we physically don't have room for everyone here," he said.

"Every indication is that these numbers are greater than we anticipated ... and at this point this is the only horse to ride."

Reilly said no other site was being considered for the time being.

Meanwhile, Tuesday -- even with no cable for Internet, planning meetings proceeding apace, software geeks designing systems for keeping track of the coming crowds and School District intake forms piling up in a box at the assistance center -- families began arriving.

Errol LeCesne showed up to ask about his sister-in-law, Sylvia Taylor. He lives in Colorado but has a condominium in Las Vegas. The family decided to meet here after Taylor's home flooded in New Orleans.

Taylor, a 67-year-old retired schoolteacher, needed medication for her severe arthritis. LeCesne was told that the center wasn't set up, and she was given a yellow Post-It with a phone number for the Red Cross.

Outside and on the way to the parking lot, LeCesne said he had gone to the assistance center because his family had received the runaround everywhere else and they had seen the morning news reports.

Waiting in the car, Taylor said she had been to a pharmacy but they couldn't fill a prescription without a doctor's order and that a Red Cross worker had said she would call back, but never did.

LeCesne dialed the number on the Post-It. A message said the mailbox was full.

Later, Leary said he hoped to "avoid that kind of runaround" in the coming days, and "have a seamless delivery of social services."

Shortly after LeCesne and Taylor drove away, Haile Tolesa and Abaynesh Hunde showed up, the couple originally from Ethiopia but three-year residents of New Orleans.

Tolesa was a cabdriver in the Big Easy and Hunde, a cashier in a French Quarter gift shop. Their apartment was flooded, and they left the city by car Aug. 28.

With their 7-month-old daughter, Rebecca, in tow, they followed government orders to evacuate and drove bumper to bumper 16 hours to Houston, where they stayed in a hotel for four days. Then they decided to head for Las Vegas, home of a friend.

When they got here, the friend's phone was disconnected; they still haven't found him.

The Red Cross has put them in a hotel since Saturday. Sharon Mann, normally a spokeswoman for Catholic Charities, immediately helped the family Tuesday afternoon with diapers and baby food.

Now, Tolesa said, "I need to find a house and a job. I think I stay here."