Since leaving her home in Orange ahead of Hurricane Rita last week, Marcia Gore has traveled with her husband and four dogs to Arkansas to Austin and back to Orange.
She returned to find her home in good shape, she said, but with no electricity. The heat was excruciating, and, because she suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, she was forced to leave again.
She spent the night in Houston and is now staying at a Galveston hotel.
Gore said she went to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s recovery center at the Island Community Center in Galveston on Wednesday to find out what type of assistance is available to her. She claims she was told that the agency was only helping people affected by Hurricane Katrina at the moment.
“They were not told that here,” said Liza Chigos, FEMA’s disaster recovery center manager in Galveston.
Chigos said everyone, whether they are a victim of Rita or Katrina, can register with FEMA for aid to pay for home repairs not covered by private insurance. People who live in areas that were hit hard by Rita can also have their hotel rooms paid for by the agency, she said.
Hurricane victims need to provide identification that they live in one of the affected areas like Port Arthur or Orange and the hotel will directly bill the government, she said.
One thing that FEMA cannot help victims with, she said, was paying for food or gasoline.
Chigos said people should contact local agencies such as Catholic Charities to get food or help paying for utilities.
The volunteer coordinator for Catholic Charities in Galveston, Joe Compian, said his organization served food to about 200 people Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, he said, they served so many people that they ran out of food at about 3:30 p.m. They plan to restock the shelves and serve meals again today.
Next week, he said, Catholic Charities will begin trying to help Galveston County residents who spent their money evacuating and are now worried about paying bills and buying food.
Cassie Davis of Texas City said she spent about $500 to evacuate her four children from the area. She said she called Catholic Charities on Wednesday morning to ask about any help she could get to help pay her bills and was surprised about the “rude” response she was greeted with.
“If it happened,” Compian said, “I apologize.”
Tabitha Flisowski of Galveston said she was dissatisfied her experience at the Jesse Tree. When she returned home on Monday, she was forced to throw away all of the food in her refrigerator.
Flisowski said she had plenty of canned food and noodles for her two children and godson, but went to the Jesse Tree to see if she could get some eggs and milk.
She left with three snack packs, she said. One contained a bottle of water, a bottle of Gatorade and a can of Vienna sausages. The other two contained a can of Pringles along with the water and Gatorade.
Flisowski said a friend of hers left the same charity with some noodles and a few canned goods.
Attempts to reach officials from the Jesse Tree for comment on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Carl Broom of Texas City said he evacuated with eight members of his family to Palestine. They stayed six days at a hotel and ran up a bill of about $1,100.
He said he contacted the Red Cross but was told that the organization is not reimbursing hotel bills at the moment.
Broom said he can pay the bill, but he worries about other people who cannot.
Chigos said that people who evacuated and stayed in a hotel could send their hotel receipts to FEMA for reimbursement.
However, she said, victims of Hurricane Rita must register with the government first by call the FEMA number or visiting the Island Community Center.
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Useful Numbers
• FEMA — Island Community Center, 4700 Broadway, Galveston, (800) 621-3362.
