Hurricane aid problems bring Michael Chertoff to Houston
The Homeland Security chief's scheduled meeting with local officials follows reports of food and water distribution problems to affected residents.
Bob Levey / Associated Press
HOUSTON -- Amid mounting criticism that mistakes made by the Federal Emergency Management Agency caused thousands of area residents to be turned away from federal aid distribution points without supplies, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff is flying here this morning.
Chertoff told reporters that he knows the public is "extremely frustrated and everyone is at the mercy of what we can deliver. We have got to address the problems as quickly as possible," he said.
A scheduled meeting with local officials, and Chertoff's insistence, in comments to reporters, that he is "not afraid to kick someone in the rear" to correct the missteps, come after Houston Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett announced late Tuesday that they would take over how FEMA distributes the millions of liters of water and pounds of ice and food to the survivors of Hurricane Ike, many of whom are living without power.
While White and Emmett declined to be specific about what caused the delays, they opened 26 distribution centers, began ordering supply trucks to drive throughout the night to get goods into the city by daybreak, and consolidated other locations in order to make sure the food, water, ice and tarps needed to cover rooftops would be available to an increasingly tense public.
Adding to the region's woes, the Texas Attorney General's office said this week that it is looking into hundreds of complaints about price-gouging for gasoline, food and other supplies that have come in the wake of Ike slamming into the Gulf Coast early Saturday morning.
On Tuesday, thousands of residents sought to return to Galveston Island under a city-sanctioned "look and leave" period, but the resulting traffic snarl and human crush sent officials scrambling to close the city's borders again by day's end.
Tuesday afternoon, Galveston city officials announced they would allow homeowners to check on their property between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. They then had to leave the city, or face a $2,000 fine.
The compromise came after days of ordering residents to stay away from an area that officials say is not safe to inhabit.
As word spread that city officials were allowing Galveston residents to check their property, traffic on southbound Interstate 45 from Houston backed up for at least eight miles. Drivers impatiently inched forward in stop-and-go traffic, easing around utility trucks and yelling at those trying to sneak forward along the emergency lane.
