Hurricane Rita turns Katrina aid workers into evacuees - Yahoo! News
Hurricane Rita turns Katrina aid workers into evacuees - Yahoo! News: "BATON ROUGE, La. - Many disaster relief workers who came to help Hurricane Katrina survivors pulled out themselves on Thursday - or tried to - as Hurricane Rita bore down on the Texas Gulf coast.
Some were carless and many were exhausted more than three weeks into the toughest test that U.S. disaster aid workers ever have faced. U.S. troops and
Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel - charging hard this time - are expected to fill in for private aid groups to some degree in Rita's wake, but all will be stretched thinner than ever.
Ben Curran, FEMA's coordinator for volunteer groups, said the groups have faced multiple hurricane disasters before, though of a different scale.
'This is more shocking because the first blow was so devastating,' Curran said. 'There's a lot of concern among people in the region about staff shortages.'
Among Katrina survivors in Louisiana and Mississippi, there was widespread fear that relief groups would desert them in order to cope with new victims in Texas or western Louisiana. At the same time, many Katrina victims already had had it with the Red Cross and FEMA.
'The Red Cross has never dealt with anything like this before,' said Sam Hilbun of New Orleans, now volunteering for the Red Cross in Baton Rouge. 'The system could be better,' he continued, 'but it's normally set up to work two or three days. This is the third week.'"
Some were carless and many were exhausted more than three weeks into the toughest test that U.S. disaster aid workers ever have faced. U.S. troops and
Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel - charging hard this time - are expected to fill in for private aid groups to some degree in Rita's wake, but all will be stretched thinner than ever.
Ben Curran, FEMA's coordinator for volunteer groups, said the groups have faced multiple hurricane disasters before, though of a different scale.
'This is more shocking because the first blow was so devastating,' Curran said. 'There's a lot of concern among people in the region about staff shortages.'
Among Katrina survivors in Louisiana and Mississippi, there was widespread fear that relief groups would desert them in order to cope with new victims in Texas or western Louisiana. At the same time, many Katrina victims already had had it with the Red Cross and FEMA.
'The Red Cross has never dealt with anything like this before,' said Sam Hilbun of New Orleans, now volunteering for the Red Cross in Baton Rouge. 'The system could be better,' he continued, 'but it's normally set up to work two or three days. This is the third week.'"
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