Chertoff Returns To Texas Amid FEMA Criticism
GALVESTON, TX — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will be back in Texas observing recovery efforts in Houston and Galveston.
Houston’s mayor is unhappy with FEMA, saying supplies aren’t coming in fast enough in the days since Hurricane Ike blew through. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett has personally taken over coordination of efforts to hand out relief supplies.
FEMA says it’ll start paying for 30 days of hotel expenses for people whose homes are too damaged for them to live in.
Near Galveston, about 250 residents of the hard-hit Bolivar Peninsula refuse to leave. The Texas attorney general’s office is exploring how to legally force them out, saying they’re concerned about a lack of utilities and the spread of diseases.
