Katrina survivors filling spaces valley residents might need

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005 | 9:52 a.m.

The scramble to find places for Hurricane Katrina survivors to live in the Las Vegas Valley is filling up rooms that otherwise would be an option for valley residents whose homes have burned or flooded, officials say.

"It's a kind of dilemma we are in," said Penney Towers, executive director of the American Red Cross Southern Nevada Chapter. "We're concerned about it."

Southern Nevada has seen an influx of 2,000-plus people from the Gulf Coast in the past two weeks, officials have said.

When a valley home or apartment is destroyed in a fire or flood, firefighters notify the Red Cross, which assesses the needs of a the victims. Sometimes they have relatives or friends in town that they can stay with. If an apartment was involved, sometimes the manager of the complex will arrange housing in an intact unit.

But if the victims have no place else to live, the Red Cross begins searching for a hotel or motel room.

The Red Cross averages 300 responses a year to home tragedies in Southern Nevada alone, he said.

One examples of the role that the Red Cross plays came on Sept. 6, when at least 39 people were left without a place to live after 16 apartments burned at the Rivergate Village Apartments at 3940 Algonquin Drive near Flamingo Road.

Even more recently, on Sunday morning, eight apartments burned at a complex on Flamingo Road at Tamarus Street, causing an estimated $250,000 in damage. Three people were treated for smoke inhalation, including an elderly woman who was helped from her apartment by passersby.

But finding available housing and affordable apartments to rent are always problems in Las Vegas, said Ed Ruttan, director of disaster services for the Red Cross.

Even before the Gulf Coast arrivals, there have been times when tourists have booked all of the more reasonably hotel rooms in the valley and the Red Cross has "been told the nearest hotel room is in Mesquite," Ruttan said.

In four to six months the Southern Nevada Chapter of the American Red Cross plans to intensify efforts to raise funds to help local families.

Unless a check or money order specifies the funds go to the local chapter, donations automatically go to help Hurricane Katrina victims, he said.