By CAIN BURDEAU
Associated Press
A security guard at a FEMA trailer park in New Orleans was shot to death Monday in the latest violence to rack the city still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.
The shooting, at about 5:15 a.m., was at a trailer park in Gentilly, a section of the city that flooded during Katrina. A few hours earlier, another man was shot and killed near the Guste public housing complex.
The latest violence brought the number of homicides in the city this year to 34. Last year, New Orleans counted 161.
HAMMOND, LA. — Dozens of families moved from a FEMA trailer park that had been plagued by sewage leaks and power outages were in temporary homes Monday, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had requested work permits to dismantle the site this week.
Many of the residents were moved to other FEMA locations in the Hammond area, agency spokesman Manuel Broussard said.
“Some families were concerned about schooling for their children, and we have found housing for them close to their schools,” Broussard said. Likewise, he said, the agency has kept people who had jobs in Hammond close to town.
For Allsee Tobias, though, it still felt like yet another failure of the federal government to help Hurricane Katrina victims, even if the goal was to safeguard their health.
“They know how to put me out, but they don’t know how to help me out. That’s how I look at it,” said Tobias, who lost his New Orleans home in Katrina’s flooding and then was told to leave his Hammond trailer over the weekend. He and about 20 relatives, including 10 children, lived in four trailers, and were anxious about being split up.
FEMA abruptly closed down the mobile home park because of ongoing problems with raw sewage that pours onto the grass. FEMA said electricity was cut off last week for the third time since Oct. 12; Broussard said the landowners hadn’t paid bills on time, while Frank Bonner, a co-owner of the site, said FEMA hadn’t paid on time.
A 48-hour deadline to leave fell on Sunday night, and FEMA scrambled to find new places for the 56 households.
FEMA was working to relocate 16 remaining households as of Monday afternoon. Broussard said that Catholic Charities, a social work outreach program, had offered to temporarily house some of the remaining households.
“This is a very quick, decisive move because of concern for the residents,” Broussard said.