Las Vegas NowNo FEMA Evacuees: Big Expensive Test

No FEMA Evacuees: Big Expensive Test

Contact Reporter Edward Lawrence

Our area prepared to receive a large number of evacuees from the Gulf Coast on Monday. FEMA scheduled a plane to arrive in Las Vegas with 200 victims of Hurricane Katrina. Governor Kenny Guinn announced Monday morning that FEMA canceled the flight.

The governor now says it is unlikely that we will receive evacuees in the near future. This was all an expensive test for our response. In just 48-hours, county officials closed the Cambridge Community Center to the public and brought equipment in to help evacuees. UMC also closed its McCarran Quick Care and set up tents in preparation to receive the victims.

The plan for Las Vegas to help Gulf Coast evacuees was unveiled late last week. That's when FEMA announced Clark County should expect 200 victims to arrive by air. McCarran Quick Care Clinical Manager Sue Branske says after losing everything the evacuees would need help from medical to housing to financial. "We met several times to decide what supplies we needed, what accommodations we needed for the patients when they got here, what they possible health conditions would be so we were prepared for that."

The Quick Care would have been the first stop for evacuees. Nurses set up one Quick Care room as a make shift children's ward. The staff brought care bears for the kids. Huge tents were set up outside and extra staff stood by ready to help. Now it will not be used.

Clark County Assistant Manager Darryl Martin says, "We had everything in place -- everything from our work with the folks at McCarran Airport to UMC to Cambridge Community Center. We were ready to process and receive 300 or so evacuees."

Martin coordinated the effort. Closing buildings, renting port-a-johns, and moving computers into place cost the county tens of thousands of dollars. Martin adds, "We have kept track of every expense that we have had on this project and we are going to send that out to FEMA for payment."

Martin says Governor Guinn declared a state of emergency last week opening the door for FEMA to cover evacuee preparation costs, which includes the continued expense of processing Gulf Coast evacuees who made their own way to Las Vegas through the Fertitta Community Center. Martin says, "If we keep going through the end of the week then we will be well over 2,000 evacuees that we have processed so far."

On Friday, Martin will reassess the situation to see if the Fertitta Community Center should remain open. He says the next step is to help integrate the victims into the Las Vegas community. Some companies have stepped forward to interview victims for jobs.