FEMA Will Stop Paying Hotel Bills for Katrina Evacuees

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates there are 500 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina still staying in Tennessee hotels.

But FEMA acting director David Paulison says the agency will stop paying for hotel rooms on February 7th for those who didn’t register with FEMA.

Paulison says the hotel room strategy was only temporary and says the number of evacuees in hotels has dropped from a high of 80-thousand nationwide in October.

“The statistics tell us, demonstrates that with the right resources and help, fewer families are in need of support at this time. Because now we have right around 26-thousand rented by FEMA. We have spent more than 525-million dollars renting these rooms.”

Paulison says it’s time for evacuees to find more permanent housing. FEMA will continue paying for rooms at least through February 13 for those who registered with the agency for an extension.

Almost 5-thousand applications for FEMA aid have come from the Nashville area, but those applications are per household, so FEMA doesn’t know how many actual evacuees are here.