Newspaper Page Text
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FEMA extends deadline for evacuees through Jan. 7
The Department of
Homeland Security’s Federal
Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) announced
Tuesday a two-week exten¬
sion of the deadline for ter¬
mination of FEMA’s hotel
program for evacuees from
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
FEMA will further extend
the termination deadline for
Georgia and nine other states
with the highest concentra¬
tion of evacuees through Jan.
7, 2006.
The extension was made
to accommodate efforts to
move all evacuees out of
hotels and into apartments
and longer-term homes. The
original FEMA deadline for
the federally-reimbursed
hotel program had been Dec.
1. With 29 states lodging less
than 100 families each, the
task of locating housing
before the holidays is an
attainable goal, according to
Acting FEMA Director
David Paulison.
For example, the state of
SCHOOL from 1A
Carpenter said that while this type
of program is not yet utilized very
often in Georgia schools, it has been
used frequently in other parts of the
country.
“Texas schools use this program a
lot because they have a lot of issues
with visitors since they’re op the bor¬
der,” she said.
The school installed the program
on Nov. 1 and Carpenter said since
then it has been successful.
“It’s been very positive so far,” she
said. “We thought we would have a
lot of people concerned about us scan¬
ning their driving licenses, but the
information we’re able to view is so
DIRECT from 1A
“We’re not just looking
for professional singers,” he
said. “Basically we’re look¬
ing at your typical church
choir singer — someone
with a basic understanding
of sight reading, an interest
in being part of this group
and a love of singing. If I get
those three things, I can
make it work.”
McCollum hopes to
STUDENTS from 1A
environment and animals,
explained Phillips.
Phillips said that while all
her students will be
working with
Legos in practice
for the Lego
League competi¬
tion, only a select
few will actually
work on on the kits
that will be used
for competition.
“Sadly only five
students can be on
the competition
team,” she said.
But Phillips is
taking advantage
of the situation in
order to help her
students learn
about business as
well.
“I’m having them formal¬
ly apply to be on the team
just like they would have to
apply for a job in the real
world,” said Phillips. “They
had to write a letter detailing
why they thought they should
be on the team.”
Before the team is put
together, all of Phillips’ stu¬
dents are learning about
robotics through the use of
Legos.
“Learning through robot¬
ics is an excellent medium
for gifted students,” said
Phillips. “Gifted students are
intensely curious, have an
ability to learn rapidly, adapt
to new situations with ease,
are self directed and thrive on
freedom for individuality in
their own learning.”
While learning to con¬
struct robots is an important
part of the program, perhaps
more important is what stu¬
dents are learning about pro-
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS — Friday, November 25,2005
New York is hosting 273
households, which means
they need to place roughly
12 families a day in order to
have everyone in homes by
Dec. 15.
Georgia along with other
states with the highest con¬
centration of evacuees in
hotel rooms will have until
Jan. 7 to help evacuees find
longer-term housing on the
condition that they provide
FEMA with a plan to reach
the Jan. 7 deadline. The nine
other states are Alabama,
Arkansas, California, Flor¬
ida, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Nevada, Tennessee and
Texas.
ivi ore than 92 percent of
the approximately 50,000
families still living in hotel
rooms are located in Georgia
and the other states.
“Our top priority remains
addressing the long-term
needs of millions of hurri¬
cane victims. Today we
offered an extension to the
end of the hotel program
specific that we haven’t really had any
complaints. Parents have been very
pleased with the system.”
Carpenter said so far the school
has not run across any problem visi¬
tors, but she said if they ever do, safe¬
ty of the students will come first.
“Fortunately we haven’t had any¬
one not clear yet, but if we ever did,
that person would not be allowed to
the leave the office and our school
resource officer who works for the
sheriff’s office would be called to
come to our school immediately,” she
said.
The $1,000 cost of the program
came from the school’s general fund
recruit around 35 community
members for the group.
“Due to some size con¬
straints at the Playhouse,
around 35 to 40 people
would make a nice size
group,” said McCollum.
McCollum said the idea
of a Cumming community
chorus arose after recent
concerts at the Playhouse.
“The concept spun out of
tecting their environment.
“We need to know how to
preserve and keep our oceans
safe,” said student
«6
Learning through
robotics is
an excellent
medium for
gifted stu¬
dents.
- Daves Creek
Elementary
School teacher
Christi Phillips
M
protect the oceans and our
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Our top long-term priority remains of addressing
the needs millions of
hurricane victims. Today we offered
an extension to the end of the hotel
program because we are committed
to working with Governors and
Mayors to move evacuees out of
hotels and into long-term housing.
-Acting FEMA Director David Paulison
££ ^
because we are committed to
working with Governors and
Mayors to »-vi in r\ \ * r e evacuees
out of hotels and into long¬
term housing,” said Acting
FEMA Director David
Paulison. “We recognize that
finding housing is a chal¬
lenge, but this is a doable
task and we are confident
that as we work together we
will improve the quality of
life for thousands of evac¬
the Classical Christmas
Concert programs,” explain¬
ed McCollum. “During these
(the most recent of which
was held Nov. 20), we had
people coming together to
show their talents. Linda
Heard (director of the
Playhouse) then approached
me about forming a commu¬
nity chorus that could put on
such shows on a regular
Emily Chapman.
“Robots can help
do that by doing
things that humans
can’t do.”
“Robots can
work all day and
never need a
break,” added fel¬
low student Gavin
Tyler. “They can
work without need¬
ing food and they
can stay under
water for a long
time. Even though
they might cost a
lot of money,
robots could
uees.
FEMA will require the 10
states recei "g further
extensions up to Jan. 7 to
outline plans and timelines
for completing the placement
of evacuee households into
qualified temporary housing,
FEMA will also require
those states to submit period
ic status reports outlining
their progress in meeting in
conjunction with extensions
and Carpenter said the program has
been well worth the cost.
“You can’t put a price on our chil¬
dren’s safety,” she said.
“But we felt the cost was very rea¬
sonable since it’s just the one time
fee.’
So far Daves Creek is the only
Forsyth County School to utilize the
program, but Carpenter said that offi¬
cials may be looking at the possibility
of placing the program in all schools.
“I know the central office staff is
looking at what we’ve done and they
might be considering putting the pro¬
gram throughout the district,” she
said.
basis.’
McCollum, who spent ten
years as director of the
Gainesville Chorale, said the
Cumming Playhouse Singers
will most likely be similar to
the Gainesville ensemble in
their rehearsal and perform
ance schedule.
“We’ll probably rehearse
every Monday evening start
ing at 7 and going until 8 or
lives.’
Phillips’ class received
financial support in order to
purchase practice kits and
enter the competition from
the Daves Creek PTA, Lanier
Technology College,
Tutoring Tree, Hobby Town
and Leland Phillips.
The students also worked
to raise money themselves by
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COLE from 1A
bailiff to retrieve Plaintiff’s check
and to ‘call the bank to ascertain
whether the funds were good.’”
George Mecerod claims that the
magistrate inaccurately determined
that the check was no good and
issued a warrant for his arrest.
In his order, O’Kelley wrote that
Cole “argues the plaintiff’s com¬
plaint should be dismissed because
she acted in her official judicial
capacity and is therefore entitled to
absolute judicial immunity.”
“Plaintiff ... contends that Judge
Cole erroneously determined that
his check would not be honored
and issued the warrant for his arrest
selling origami pieces they
crafted at a recent arts and
crafts show at the school.
Phillips said she hopes the
school will continue to par¬
ticipate in the competition on
an annual basis.
“Eventually I would like
to start a robotics club at our
school for all students who
are interested,” she added.
of the hotel program beyond
Dec. 15.
FEMA will continue to
provide rental assistance to
hurricane victims across the
country for up to 18 months.
That means that by Jan. 7,
tens of thousands of Katrina
victims will have had a safe,
private and comfortable
home, be it a hotel or motel
room, for four and a half
months after the storm at no
cost to them and without
reducing their eligibility for
other FEMA assistance.
FEMA has provided $500
million to hurricane evacuees
in the last seven days and has
provided more than $4.4 bil
lion to 1.4 million families
affected by the Gulf Coast
hurricanes, to date,
The $300 million hotel
program is a less cost effec
tive and less comfortable
solution for families working
to recover from these storms,
As of Nov. 21., less than
50,000 hurricane evacuees
remained in hotels and
without sufficient evidence,”
O’Kelley wrote. “Absolute judicial
immunity applies, however, even if
the judge in question acts mali¬
ciously, fails to follow procedural
rules, or otherwise acts in error.”
O’Kelley also dismissed claims
made against Deborah Mecerod
and Reese-Beisbier, saying they
had not violated George Mecerod’s
constitutional rights.
Cole did not return a message
left with her office before press
time Wednesday morning. Efforts
to reach Mecerod and his attorney,
Mark Thomas Sallee of Decatur,
also were unsuccessful.
8:30,” he said. “We plan to
hold four concerts a year -
one in the fall, winter, spring
and a holiday concert.”
McCollum said the group
will begin rehearsals in
February and hopefully hold
their first concert in early May.
The group will then “take the
summer off’ and come back
together in the early fall,
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\ r ?
motels. Evacuees are being
encouraged to call the toll
free FEMA helpline to learn
about available housing
options.
Evacuees are also being
contacted directly by state,
voluntary organizations and
FEMA representatives visit¬
ing hotels and motels. FEMA
has also set up a housing
referral service.
All evacuees who need
help finding housing may
contact FEMA’s housing
locator service (800) 762-
8740. For other forms of
assistance, evacuees may
contact FEMA’s help line
(800) 621-FEMA or a nearby
Disaster Recovery Center to
learn more about alternative
housing options and referral
services.
For information about
HUD programs, call (800)
955-2232 for general inquiries
and (866) 373-9509 for affect¬
ed families to learn about the
Katrina Disaster Housing
Assistance Program.
area and the changing demo¬
graphics, the arts should be
ripe for the harvest at this
time,” said McCollum.
For more information
about the Cumming
Playhouse Singers or to
obtain an application, con¬
tact McCollum at (770) 844-
8546 or the Cumming
Playhouse at (770) 781
9178.