Few Floridians Leave Homes for Tent Cities

Building inspectors and social workers went door to door Thursday, trying to coax more people out of their hurricane-ravaged and possibly dangerous homes and into military tent cities.

The Army also announced that another 11,000 troops would be brought to South Florida in the next few days to buttress the 16,000 already deployed for storm relief.

More rain fell on the area that was smashed by Hurricane Andrew on Aug. 24, making busy roads slippery and weighing down soaked, sagging ceiling materials exposed by the storm. At least four homes collapsed overnight because of the rain, Homestead Police Maj. Chuck Habermehl said.

No new injuries were reported, but relief officials said they were frustrated that so few people were willing to take advantage of the five military tent cities. Federal officials said they might put in laundries, televisions and videocassette recorders to lure more people into the tents.

Five tent cities in Homestead and Florida City with room for 3,800 people were in operation, and slightly more than 300 people were in them Thursday. Army officials said seven more tent cities could be built, bringing the capacity to 20,000.

The White House announced that the Small Business Administration had speeded up its handling of loan applications from hurricane victims in Florida and Louisiana, reducing the usual 30-day processing period to seven days.

But the disaster relief system came under criticism Thursday in Washington, where Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) called the federal response to the hurricane “pathetically sluggish” and said that she will propose changes.

Mikulski said she has asked the General Accounting Office to examine the government’s disaster relief polices and make recommendations that will form the framework of a bill she plans to introduce next year.

Her comments came amid criticism that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is so loaded with political appointees with no experience in dealing with natural disasters that it cannot function effectively.