Road to Recovery Runs Past the Shopping Mall

Louise Bryant, matriarch of an extended family that fled Hurricane Katrina and took refuge at the Astrodome, left a Super Target store Sunday with two overflowing shopping carts.

Using the $2,000 debit card given by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Bryant, 60, led a family shopping expedition for food, clothes and games for the children, a crock pot, cutlery and pans, underwear, a rice cooker, shoes, a baby stroller and other things.

“We only got the things we need, nothing more,” she said. “A lot of fools are spending their $2,000 all at once, but not us, not while I have my say. This is just a beginning.”

While FEMA’s sluggish performance in rescuing Katrina victims is being roundly criticized, the impact of its financial assistance to evacuees is beginning to be felt as the Houston relief effort moves from the evacuation phase to the longer, more problematic recovery period.

Debit cards were distributed Friday, and for those who did not get them, checks and direct-deposit slips began to appear at the Astrodome post office Sunday.

Stores near the Astrodome and adjacent Reliant Center were doing a brisk business Sunday. Shoes were a hot item; many evacuees arrived without any or with slippers, many soaked from being at the soggy Superdome.

“We need shoes, but you have to careful, some of these big stores want $40 for a pair of shoes,” Lakeisha Robertson, 38, said as she emerged from the Ross clothing store. “I’m never paying that for shoes. We need other things too.”

By Sunday morning, FEMA had promised aid to 40,793 families who had fled to Houston and had distributed $53,912,234 , according to Ed Conley, FEMA’s representative to the Houston relief effort, the largest in the nation for Katrina victims.

The dollar figure is expected to jump considerably. The $2,000 -- whether through debit card, check or direct deposit -- is only a start. Families will be able to receive up to $26,500, according to their needs, although they will have to produce receipts to prove that they’re buying necessities.

“We’re dealing here with people who were plucked off rooftops or had to stay at the Superdome, and many escaped with nothing,” Conley said. The dollar figure will get a lot greater.”

The FEMA payments and a similar effort by the Red Cross are helping Houston officials move toward their goal of emptying the Astrodome and Reliant Center by next Sunday.

About 5,200 evacuees remain at the two sites and the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown, compared to 30,000 at the height of the evacuation.

Dr. Herminia Palacio, executive director of Harris County Public Health Services, said “our mission won’t end” when evacuees leave shelters, but will shift more to meeting their psychological needs, including those who might suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, much like combat veterans.

Steven Schnee, a county mental health official, said he expects that as many as 15% of the evacuees may need at least short-term counseling or therapy.

About 570 mental health clinicians have done volunteer work at the city’s main shelters, seeing more than 4,300 people. Fourteen people have been hospitalized with psychiatric problems.

Between Saturday morning and Sunday morning, the population at the city’s three remaining shelters decreased by 2,064 as the Harris County Housing Authority moved hundreds of families into apartments throughout the city.

“We are making progress,” said Coast Guard Lt. Joe Leonard, who is in charge of the Astrodome and Reliant Center shelters. “We are moving people back to their lives.”

Not everything is progressing smoothly, however. There are glitches and eligibility snafus.

John Muller, 57, a Navy corpsman who served in Vietnam with the Marines, sat dejectedly in his wheelchair -- he has emphysema and nerve damage -- in front of the Reliant Center. He said he had been denied aid because he couldn’t prove that he was the head of a household.

“I don’t have the slightest idea where I’m going next,” he said. “They’re more fixed up for families, husbands and wives, but single guys are different. They gave my [New Orleans] roommate a card, but now I can’t find him.”

For those with FEMA cards, there were a dozen automated teller machines in the Astrodome parking lot.

Warren Mathews, 54, and his wife, Kathleen, 52, said they do not plan to spend any of the FEMA money until they find housing. “After that, we’ll get a car, some furniture and maybe a television,” he said.

To help evacuees get to shopping centers, the local transit district has issued seven-day passes.

And the post office has established an Astrodome ZIP Code, taking over what once was the box office when the Astros and Oilers played in the stadium.

In 90-degree heat, hundreds of evacuees waited for the 1 p.m. opening of the postal annex. “I need that check,” said Cecelia Conway, 44. “Give me that check and I can do the rest.”

Later, a New Orleans jazz band made a surprise appearance outside the annex, with many of those waiting for checks falling in line with the characteristic stutter-step of New Orleans street revelers.

“The band makes the wait a little easier,” said Sereida Lambert, 42, who plans to use the FEMA money to support her two children and grandson. “The music seems like home.”