New hurricane displacing refugees; Tennessee may take in 3,000

Tennessee emergency officials agreed to take up to 3,000 Katrina refugees who need to be relocated.

“Last night we were asked if we could take more,” Tennessee Emergency Management Agency spokesman Kurt Pickering said Tuesday. “We told them we could take 3,000 from Texas.”

The evacuees would be sent to shelters, mostly east of Memphis, Pickering said.

“I know of some shelters that are not at capacity,” Pickering said.

Whether the state will get 3,000 — or any — evacuees is unclear, state spokeswoman Lola Potter said Tuesday.

“After that call last night, we have heard nothing else and there are no flights scheduled,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they won’t come and being Tennesseans, we’ll be ready if they do.”

Pickering said Rita evacuees “might go to shelters first and then be moved on if that would be best for them.” He said local Red Cross chapters also could have the option to “put them in motels with vouchers.”

About 20,000 Katrina evacuees remained in Tennessee, TEMA said. The shelter count in the state was fewer than 600, compared to a total of more than 2,000 in the days after the hurricane.

“Some folks are moving out into communities and putting down some roots,” Pickering said.

In Chattanooga, officials at a Red Cross shelter said Tuesday they were notified to be prepared for 150 evacuees from Houston, although they said that earlier such notices of additional arrivals turned out to be false. They said the south Chattanooga shelter’s 150 Katrina evacuees were all relocated as of Tuesday.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s office says about 4,000 evacuees from Louisiana would be moved to Fort Chafee, Ark. About 250 evacuees were being moved to Nebraska.

Evacuation flights on chartered commercial planes were starting Tuesday from Ellington Field in Houston.

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