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10,000 Katrina survivors arrive at Ft. Chafee, AR

By Last Night in Little Rock, Section Huricanes Katrina and Rita
Posted on Sun Sep 04, 2005 at 09:10:34 PM EST
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by Last Night in Little Rock

10,000 evacuees from Katrina arrived at Ft. Chafee Arkansas today, a National Guard base. Ft. Chafee is more infamously remembered for the place where thousands from the Mariel Boatlift landed in 1980 and a riot ensued. (The rioters were moved to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, and the same thing happened there.)

Ft. Chafee filled up, and two plane loads and buses took the rest to the Pine Bluff, Arkansas Convention Center and church camps, according to KATV and KTHV in Little Rock. Gov. Mike Huckabee was there to welcome them and assist in redirecting the excess to other places in the state.

Welcome to Arkansas. A home and work await you.

Update

Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

Last week, Gov. Mike Huckabee said the state would take about 20,000 people from storm-ravaged New Orleans over the next two or three days. But the size and speed of the airlift caught Arkansas off-guard.

"We’ve been inundated with twice as many people as we have been expecting in about a third of the frame of time that we were expecting them," Huckabee said Sunday while visiting Fort Chaffee, a National Guard base in west Arkansas.

"No one is prepared for the magnitude of it. No one is able to contemplate the numbers of people that are totally displaced."

The task of caring for the newcomers fell to state agencies and private citizens alike, who found themselves hustling to meet the serious needs of Katrina’s victims. Facts and plans changed by the hour Sunday, and state officials were often short on answers to where refugees were going, how many and when.

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    10,000 Katrina survivors arrive at Ft. Chafee, AR | 6 comments (6 topical)
    Re: 10,000 Katrina survivors arrive at Ft. Chafee, (none / 0) (#1)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:15 PM EST
    Huckabee is a tool, but I gotta give him his props for showing up in person and getting personally involved. Unlike some.

    Re: 10,000 Katrina survivors arrive at Ft. Chafee, (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:15 PM EST
    Speaking of church camps, is it ok if faith-based initiatives help out the survivors? What if they receive some federal funding to provide food and shelter? Somebody call the ACLU - taxpayer money may be in use by theists!

    Re: 10,000 Katrina survivors arrive at Ft. Chafee, (none / 0) (#3)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:15 PM EST
    Pat Robertson will get a big cut of the donations to be sure, grad student. Now please go back to your bible study and find out where it says Jesus was a supply-sider. Thanks.

    Re: 10,000 Katrina survivors arrive at Ft. Chafee, (none / 0) (#4)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:15 PM EST
    Bushe League thinks their biggest problem is just a PR issue... Bush Administration Puts Katrina PR Campaign Into Overdrive September 4, 2005 By KOMO Staff & News Services WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Bush administration kept its Hurricane Katrina response and its public relations campaign in overdrive on Sunday, even as first confirmation came from Washington of a dreaded statistic - that the storm probably killed thousands of people...

    Re: 10,000 Katrina survivors arrive at Ft. Chafee, (none / 0) (#5)
    by bad Jim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:15 PM EST
    Let's cut grad student some slack. There probably are monsters lurking behind every tree.

    Re: 10,000 Katrina survivors arrive at Ft. Chafee, (none / 0) (#6)
    by Edger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:15 PM EST
    bad Jim: monsters lurking behind every tree I know there is a "Terrorist behind every Bush"... Read it somewhere... where was that now? Oh,yeah... on a bumper sticker ;-)

    10,000 Katrina survivors arrive at Ft. Chafee, AR | 6 comments (6 topical)