Disasters

Politicians and American citizens alike have called for an investigation into the way the government dealt with Hurricane Katrina. Midmorning discusses alleged lapses in the disaster response system.
Evacuation camps are springing up across the nation for people who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina. Now the president of the Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee has been tapped to help with the relief operations. Hugh Parmer is in Washington, where he'll serve as a temporary senior advisor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He spoke with Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer.
Katy Lovell, who watched the storm on TV from the safety of her parent's Lake Minnetonka home, already knows that her house in New Orleans is still standing and all her family members who stayed behind are alive. Lovell is relieved, of course. But her relief is mixed with guilt.
People who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina are now scattered all over the region, and even the country, to places where they can get food and aid. Some officials are working on cleanup, but say it could take months to pump all the water out of New Orleans. Pat Owens has some experience helping people deal with disasters and rebuild in their aftermath. She was the mayor of Grand Forks when the Red River flooded in 1997, and she later worked as a consultant to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She joined Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer this morning from Florida.
Some say it makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's below sea level. Others say the Big Easy will bounce back from destruction better than ever. What is the future of New Orleans and the other cities that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina?
In many cases it's family ties that have brought victims north. But in others, it's simply a much-needed offer of help from someone they've never met.
In coming weeks as many as 3,000 survivors of Hurricane Katrina could be brought to Camp Ripley, a huge National Guard facility in central Minnesota.
or 25 years, the Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee has provided shelter, medical care and education for millions of people in refugee camps in Africa, Asia and Balkans. The ARC has sent a team to Louisiana.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty has declared a state of emergency in Minnesota in preparation for the thousands of hurricane victims. The governor also ordered that money used to help the survivors come out of the state's general fund. The orders come on the same day state officials met to outline plans for the pending arrival of Katrina survivors who could begin arriving as soon as Thursday.