[StBernard] Judge Won't Stop Ship From Leaving St. Bernard

[Westley Annis]

Judge Won't Stop Ship From Leaving St. Bernard 

March 3 , 2006

By: Steve Cannizaro


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Federal Judge won't stop ship from leaving St. Bernard but warns FEMA to
honor commitment to find alternate housing 
 
 
A federal judge in New Orleans said Friday he didn't have a legal basis to
order FEMA to keep housing St. Bernard Parish hurricane evacuees on a cruise
ship, but he warned he could hold the agency in contempt if it doesn't honor
commitments to find alternate housing for those who were using the vessel. 
 
U.S. District Judge Peter Beer's ruling cleared the way for the Scotia Price
to depart Friday from a dock at Violet. All people living in the ship were
evicted Wednesday. FEMA had been paying the expenses for residents to live
and eat on the ship since last September. 
 
Attorney Michael Ginart, who filed suit last week on behalf of 23 people
living on the Scotia Prince and sought an injunction to stop FEMA from
sending the boat away, said he wasn't surprised by Beer's conclusion that a
federal judge has little power to tell a federal agency how to do its job. 
 
St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior'' Rodriguez, who fully supported
the lawsuit and alleged FEMA has failed its responsibility to provide
housing and feed storm-affected residents, said he was disappointed by the
judge's ruling because so many St. Berrnard residents are still without
housing. 
 
Beer, who in his decision referred to himself and his court colleagues as
"children of the storm," said there are "compelling and continuing problems"
in dealing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, problems that
"result from, in many instances, ineptitude, inefficiency and indifference
at that agency." 
 
Beer said residents must continue putting up with these "shortcomings"
because "FEMA is basically the only game in town." 
 
But the judge said he'll keep the lawsuit open, following it "closely and
consistently" to decide if FEMA delivers on its promises "in fact and in
spirit." If he decides it hasn't, Beer said, he'll haul the agency in to
explain itself. 
 
"It is time for FEMA to end its faceless participation in our lives," Beer
said, adding that agency officials "must cease that calculated anonymity and
provide their names and addresses, and indeed, their telephone numbers, to
show their accountability to commitments made under oath and to the public."

 
People living on the ship have either been moved into group trailer sites or
other temporary housing, parish officials said.