Katrina Refugees: The ticks switched dogs

Friday, March 31st, 2006 12:52 pm by Neal

For today’s entry in the “Shocking News — Say it Ain’t So!” category, we have these updates on the parasites who re-located to Houston from New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina. It seems that the “evacuees” have worn out their welcome. In Katrina Evacuees Wear Out Stay in Houston, Angela K. Brown (Associated Press) writes

HOUSTON – Seven months after taking in about 200,000 Louisiana residents left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, Houstonians aren’t feeling so hospitable anymore.

Many people in the nation’s fourth-largest city complain that the influx has led to more murders and gang violence, long lines at health clinics and bus stops, and fights and greater overcrowding in the schools. Some of those claims are debatable, but the sentiment is real.

“We still feel sorry for them. We still want to help them, but it’s to the point where enough is enough,” said Torah Whitaker, 25, of Missouri City, a Houston suburb.

But a survey last month of 765 Houston-area residents by Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg found that three-fourths believed that helping the refugees put a “considerable strain” on the community, and two-thirds blamed evacuees for a surge in violent crime. Half thought Houston would be worse off if evacuees stayed, while one-fourth thought the city would be better off.

The murder rate between the Katrina refugees’ arrival in September and last week was up nearly 32 percent from the same period a year ago, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said. He said some of that is attributable to Katrina refugees, but added: “I don’t mean to send the message that all Katrina evacuees are involved in drug dealing, gangs and violent offenses.”

Refugees were involved — as victims or suspects — in 35 of the 212 murders in that time period, Hurtt said. In January, Houston police arrested eight members of rival New Orleans gangs in the murders of 11 fellow refugees. Earlier this month, half of the 18 people arrested in an auto theft sweep were evacuees.

Not all of the evacuees are gang members and murderers. For example, Neal Boortz has this update on the poor, poor pitiful poor Katrina evacuees:

This information was sent to me by a listener in Austin, Texas. I worked long and hard last night trying to verify it … no luck. I’ll post it here to see if any of you can verify or debunk! What do I think? I think it’s probably true. This is the nature of those Katrina “evacuees” still living off the taxpayer’s teat. They merely moved their dependent lifestyle to other locales.

Here’s the text of the email I received:

Last weekend FEMA, the City of Austin, and the Texas Workforce Commission set up a job training/hiring, interview job fair for Katrina evacuees to be held at the ACC campus on Webberville Rd. in East Austin. Evacuees complained that they did not have transportation so the city of Austin and FEMA provided transportation. Nine buses and vans ran from four locations in Round Rock and five locations in Austin. The vehicles were brought to their residents. Drivers knocked on their doors and did everything possible to reach potential job seekers. At the end of the day, the nine vans and buses transported a total of one person. Not one person per bus — one person. The cost to FEMA was $7800.00.

Sounds all-too plausible.

You couldn’t get those folks to attend a Job Fair if you handed out free booze and cigarettes, and FEMA doesn’t know this?

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