Plan to fly victims to Vegas put on hold

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005 | 10:55 a.m.

The federal government called off flights Tuesday that would have brought at least 500 hurricane victims to the Las Vegas Valley -- even as the slow-moving, complex system needed to bring relief dollars to Nevada ground on.

Frank Siracusa, chief of the state Division of Emergency Management, said governors from all 50 states and emergency personnel got news of the change Wednesday morning in a conference call with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"They told us, 'Because it is such an enormous project, we are slowing it down and going through a little more coordination and asking you all to be put in a holding pattern,' " Siracusa said.

Siracusa, the state's point man on the quickly changing plans to help Katrina victims -- hundreds of whom are already in the valley -- said federal officials had run into resistance from survivors to being taken to states farther from home.

"If I can read between the lines, they ran into a whole lot of issues with folks who don't want to get on airplanes and go to other areas," he said.

The decision to suspend flights came even as Clark County reported that 175 families had come through a center set up to help people from the Gulf Coast at the Catholic Charities campus downtown.

The county said the approximately 350 people received different services from private and public agencies including the Red Cross and Clark County Social Service.

But still not in place is a key ingredient to moving forward -- federal dollars to reimburse the state and local government agencies and private nonprofit organizations giving the services and another category of funds that can be given directly to the survivors.

The funds come from FEMA.

On the agency's Web site Wednesday, under the heading, "President approves emergency declarations for reception states," the agency indicated, "FEMA funds will be available to counties in the following reception states."

Nevada is not listed.

Siracusa said he wasn't worried, however, and that Gov. Kenny Guinn had sent a letter to President Bush on Wednesday asking for the emergency status needed to receive the funds.

"We were told this is a formality ... I can tell you unequivocally that FEMA will reimburse us," he said.

The official said the process would cover public agencies, but that he wasn't clear on how private agencies such as Catholic Charities -- the host site of the intake center for Katrina survivors -- would be reimbursed.

FEMA's Web site also indicates that households can receive up to $2,000 for emergency needs such as food, clothing or short-term housing, and that registration for the funds can be done by phone or online.

"Victims are encouraged to register on-line (sic) due to the possibility of high call volume," the Web site indicates.

But Siracusa said people were reporting having trouble logging onto the federal government's Web site, delaying their ability to get immediate help.

John Duignan was one of those people.

He went to the Fertitta center at Catholic Charities and also tried to get help from the FEMA Web site Wednesday.

He was unsuccessful in both, but said he would try at the center again this morning.

At the center at 1 p.m., he was given some food and water, but was told that the available personnel couldn't offer more assistance until Thursday.

At a public library later, he tried to register on the FEMA Web site, but couldn't.

Duignan said he owned a souvenir shop in the French Quarter and "lost everything" to Katrina but his car and some clothes. He had been on the road since Aug. 28, traveling through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

He chose Las Vegas, he said, "because I heard there was a lotta work out here."

Wednesday night, he was set to sleep in his car.

His plans: "to start my life over in Las Vegas."