city of atlanta's hurricane katrina relief efforts

Hurricane Katrina One Year Update

Evacuee Update

• At least 100,000 people evacuated to Atlanta in the days before and after Hurricane Katrina.  The vast majority of these evacuees remain in the Atlanta area today.
  
  
• Atlanta’s sudden population growth due to the large scale evacuations continues to challenge Atlanta’s ability to meet all the social service needs of its new residents, and its ability to integrate the influx of so many new residents into local housing, jobs, schools, legal services, and the health care system.
  
  
• The response of Atlantans and Georgian throughout the state was extraordinary- tens of thousands of Georgians worked tirelessly to assist incoming evacuees.
  
  
• Currently 38,121 evacuee families (FEMA applicants) are living in the state of Georgia. As of July 21, 2006 there are 33,286 evacuee families (FEMA applicants) who have Atlanta addresses or reside in Atlanta, Sandy Springs and Marietta.
  
  
• At the peak in October, 47,440 evacuee families were registered and living in the state of Georgia. (The number of evacuees is likely significantly higher because this figure reflects the number of households, not individuals and does not include evacuees who have not applied for Individual Assistance.)
  
  
• According to United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, the biggest continuing challenges for evacuees are accessing emergency assistance, finding employment, and addressing mental health issues.
  
  
• United Way continues to respond to evacuee needs through its 211 number.
  
  
• United Way and the City of Atlanta provide affordable housing searches and services through their websites and brochures.
  
  
• The United Way, GA Department of Labor, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, AJC and 300 local businesses held a large job fair to help 15,000 evacuees get back into the workforce. 

Financial Update

• City of Atlanta Facilitated a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Travelers’ Aid to develop an interim housing program for the evacuees. The City provided Travelers Aid $400,000 to providing housing assistance to people affected by Hurricane Katrina.  To date, $368, 217.95 was expended on rent, utilities, furniture, gas cards, health care, and travel.
  
  
• On July 11, 2006, all requests for reimbursements for the City’s response efforts addressing Hurricane Katrina were finalized.  GEMA will process the reimbursement requests of $368,217.95 and FEMA will reimburse all expenses that are deemed eligible.
  
  
• FEMA expended $191,155,879 in Georgia for Katrina and Rita evacuees.
  
  
• As of July 21, 2006, FEMA has obligated $16,421,239 in funding to local governments in Georgia to assist FEMA evacuees or respond to their presence. This does not include the payments made by FEMA directly to hotels/motels.
  
  
• $33,263,998.35 was paid directly to the evacuees residing in Atlanta for housing repair, housing replacement, personal property, transportation, medical, dental, and funeral expenses.
  
  
• FEMA awarded $2.9 million to the City of Atlanta for housing assistance payments before April 30, 2006.  These funds were administered by United Way, in which $1,631,000 was expended within the federally mandated deadline.
  Remaining funds will be returned to GEMA/FEMA.

City of Atlanta Partner Update

• The United Way served as the largest coordinator of services in the Atlanta Metro area after Hurricane Katrina. While the United Way is not traditionally a first responder to national disasters, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it served that function. From the beginning of the crisis, the Untied Way focused on coordinating and delivering housing, employment, and childcare.
  
  
• Travelers Aid of Metropolitan Atlanta provides emergency services to stranded, disabled and mentally-ill travelers, low income newcomers, runaways and homeless at-risk residents.   In a matter of just a few weeks after the hurricane, the organization provided services to over 8,000 individuals and turned no one ways. 
  
  
• AWDA’s reintegration program has served approximately 287 people since Hurricane Katrina.  AWDA also held and continues to hold weekly job fairs on Tuesdays from 8:30 am-12:00 pm.
  
  
• The Faith Community was instrumental in leading the effort to procure housing for evacuees. The Regional Counsel of Churches was the central player.  They played an influential role in extending the deadline for evacuees to leave hotels and helped ease the transition from hotels to more permanent housing.
  
  
• The Corporate Community stepped up and provided necessary assistance for food, clothing, housing and much more.  Four great examples are Ikea that donated 1000 mattresses and bedding and 4,000 stuffed animals, GAP Inc. that invited 1,400 kids to four Atlanta stores for shopping sprees, the Atlanta Furniture Bank that donated furniture for 25 homes, and the Atlanta Food Bank that Distributed ½ million pounds of food and supported 19 partner agencies that served families and provided 1,200 book bags with school supplies for students.
  
  
• Atlanta area hospitals were largely able to absorb patient-evacuees into their systems.  There were very few trauma incidents or critical patients.  Grady Memorial admitted only forty-nine patients who were evacuees from Louisiana and Mississippi from August 29-October 21.  Most evacuees required outpatient care. Grady provided medical assistance to 712 outpatients and filled 4,146 prescriptions. The cost to serve the evacuees was approximately $835,000.  The hospital has been reimbursed only $400,000. 
  
  
• Project Hope, a reintegration project created by the GA Department of Human Resources Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases provided both emotion and practical needs to Katrina evacuees to at least 37,000 evacuees.
  
  
• APS- There are 188 evacuees enrolled in the Atlanta Public School system.  All students, regardless of documentation, who claimed to be from hurricane-impacted areas, were immediately enrolled in all Georgia public schools and helped with necessary services including mental health.