Gov. Gregoire again urges FEMA to further extend deadlines

For Immediate Release: November 22, 2005

OLYMPIA - Nov. 22, 2005 - Gov. Chris Gregoire said that while she is gratified that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today announced an extension of its interim housing deadline of Dec. 1 to Dec. 15, she will continue to push FEMA for more time.

�As I stated in my letter to President Bush, the interim housing program must give states and local authorities the necessary time to find the long-term housing arrangements for thousands of people still seeking to rebuild their lives following the Katrina and Rita disasters,� Gov. Gregoire said.

�The time extension granted for the hotel/motel assistance is a move in the right direction, but I will continue to ask for more time in order to provide safe and secure lodging for evacuees,� she added.

Gov. Gregoire said she will also continue to press FEMA to extend the March 1 deadline to end its entire interim housing program for hurricane evacuees and to continue to allow 12-month leases under its interim housing program.

�Because of tight rental markets, hurricane evacuees will be hard pressed to find short term rental units in our state. A 12-month rental lease program would allow public housing agencies the time to find the necessary safe, secure and affordable units for the evacuees,� the governor said.

FEMA�s Nov. 20 report listed 1,864 evacuee registrations with Washington addresses, compared to 1,848 in the agency�s Nov. 6 report. The latest registration number represents between 4,660 and 5,592 individual evacuees since registration typically involves family groups of two or three persons.

Hurricane evacuees are reported in 35 of 39 Washington counties with the highest concentration in the Puget Sound region. King County has the largest number of evacuee registrations with 814, followed by Pierce County, 316; Snohomish County 149; Kitsap County, 89; Clark County, 82; and Spokane County, 81.

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