Thousands of Survivors Due in California

David Mince was born and raised in New Orleans, but he now plans to call Los Angeles home.

“It will be easier to start over here,” said Mince, 50, who fled his home after Hurricane Katrina hit last week. “I love L.A.”

Mince is temporarily staying at the Dream Center, a church-sponsored facility in Echo Park that has already taken in about 90 people. But he said Monday that he plans to begin searching for a place to live and a job as a marine electrician.

Thousands of hurricane survivors are expected to arrive in California in coming days and weeks, state and local officials said Tuesday. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said many of the relocations would not be temporary.

“We’re dealing most likely with a permanent situation,” he said Tuesday at a news conference in San Diego.

Responding to a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Schwarzenegger said the state would accommodate at least 1,000 evacuees. San Diego will take 600; San Francisco, 300; and San Jose, 100, he said. Those three cities were among the first to respond and said they were ready to take evacuees immediately, according to state officials.

The governor added that the state would take more victims if asked to do so and that other counties and cities might be included in the relief efforts. Reception centers will assess each person’s medical, shelter and mental health needs while working to find long-term housing.

Los Angeles County activated its Emergency Operations Center this week to coordinate local planning efforts to accommodate 2,000 evacuees. Officials are considering housing them at various sites around the county, including wintertime homeless shelters, vacant public housing units and MacLaren Children’s Center, the maligned shelter for foster children that the county closed two years ago.

“Angelenos continue to open their hearts, extend their prayers and their resources to the victims of Hurricane Katrina,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tuesday. “All of us have a responsibility to reach out.”

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy Romer pledged to enroll children immediately at district campuses.

“Anyone who comes to us from that hurricane will be welcomed in our schools,” he said. “Even though we are crowded, we can handle this.”

Local authorities have also set up a task force to help displaced families with shelter, job training, supplies and social services. Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina said the task force is seeking help from private companies, and she urged new arrivals to call the county’s 211 general information line.

A coalition of about 180 Southern California churches is also making room for thousands of evacuees. The group is finding private homes, collecting financial donations and gathering personal supplies and clothing. In addition, the coalition is training counselors to help with the emotional needs of the survivors.

“The trauma of what just happened is just beyond our imagination,” said Chuck Singleton, pastor of Loveland Church, which has branches in Ontario, Fontana, Rialto and Santa Monica. “These people are completely wiped out and devastated.”

David Mince began his journey to Los Angeles the day after the hurricane hit, when his home filled up with 6 feet of water. He made it to a shelter in Louisiana’s capital, Baton Rouge, where he met a volunteer from the Dream Center. At first, Mince was skeptical of the offer to come to Los Angeles. But then he realized that he didn’t have much, if anything, left in New Orleans.

Mince said he knows about the risk of earthquakes in Los Angeles. But he said he’s already been through a devastating natural disaster.

“By the grace of God, I made it through the hurricane,” he said. “I can’t live my life in fear.”

Trenese Thomas, 31, also plans to stay in Los Angeles with 10 members of her family, including eight children. They are still looking for several more relatives. Thomas said they escaped New Orleans after wading through deep water, sleeping under a bridge and catching a ride with a stranger.

“It was like a horror movie,” she said.

Thomas was attending culinary school in Louisiana and hopes to resume her education in a similar program here.

Sitting nearby, Pastor David Hanley said the Dream Center knows that the evacuees may be here indefinitely. Staff and volunteers are already working to arrange job interviews and get the children in schools.

“They’ve seen the devastation,” he said. “There is nothing to go back to.”

In San Francisco, volunteers worked over the weekend to arrange beds and other essentials in the basement of St. Mary’s Cathedral for 300 evacuees expected to arrive Tuesday night. Red Cross and city officials had little information about the people coming, even whether they were traveling by bus or plane.

“There are so many unknowns,” said Robert Ganiardz, a spokesman for the Red Cross. “But we are prepared to say these people will be welcome and well cared for.”

Kathy Beistel, a Red Cross spokeswoman in Oakland, said the organization had already heard from numerous local residents offering longer-term accommodations in their homes.

“People are saying, ‘I have a house built for a wheelchair’ or ‘I can take two families,’ ” she said. “Right now, we’re assessing the need for the long run.”

Barbara Coleman, 69, figured that some could use a warm welcome from a fellow African American. The registered nurse showed up at St. Mary’s on Tuesday to help ease the anxiety of bedraggled newcomers.

A resident of Bayview Hunters Point, the city’s last black enclave and home to many who migrated from the South decades ago, the New Orleans native understands the plight of those who will soon fill the cots in the church basement.

She spent hours making panicked phone calls before learning that her 88-year-old dementia-afflicted mother had been safely evacuated from a Jefferson Parish nursing home. She still has not located her sister, brother and eight nieces and nephews and hopes they might show up in San Francisco.

In Sacramento, authorities were laying plans to house about 300 evacuees expected to arrive later in the week. They will probably be sheltered in empty hangars at one of the area’s two former Air Force bases.

County spokeswoman Kerri Aiello said local social services agencies are ramping up to deal with medical issues and psychiatric care, reunite evacuees with far-flung family, provide permanent housing, food stamps, clothes and other social assistance, get children in school and potentially find jobs for adults.

Times staff writers John M. Glionna, Lee Romney, Richard Marosi, Eric Bailey and Joel Rubin contributed to this report.