from today's Jackson Hole News and Guide tells us that survivors are being put on planes,
and sent off to places unknown.
I have to post the whole story, as JH News & Guide does not archive its daily stories, and the link above will not work tomorrow for the story that is relative.
September 8th story
Katrina victims land here
By Johanna Love
Jackson Hole Daily
They didn't want to come here.
They didn't know they were coming to Jackson Hole, or even to the West.
After enduring the claws of Katrina, the subsequent flooding of New Orleans, a night as refugees in a jail cell, retreat to their home and three days without food and water, a five-member family finally hitched rides out of the city by boat and truck.
When their flight out of the Bayou country landed, they were surprised to find themselves in Salt Lake City, Utah, not Houston, Texas, where they had been told they were headed. Calls to relatives in Wyoming got them a six-hour ride to town.
Now that Miller-Muhoberac family of Chalmette, a New Orleans suburb, is in Jackson, they are nothing but thankful.
"We're trying to make plans to stay here, because there's nothing for us back in New Orleans," said Stacy Miller, 36. "Everybody's been very nice here."
The family arrived on Monday one of several that came to Jackson Hole this week. All the evacuees have this in common: at least one family member here, and nowhere else to go, said Smokey Rhea, director of the Community Resource Center.
"Right now, we're all they've got," Rhea said.
In addition to the Muhoberacs, the resource center is helping two single women, an elderly couple and another family with two small children. The center, a nonprofit funded primarily by several churches and private donors, is helping them obtain transportation, food, housing and federal assistance.
After weathering the eye of Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, Miller, her three children and boyfriend, Jeff Muhoberac, thought they were safe in their two-story house. Until the levee broke.
"The water rose so fast, it was like you're dumping a pool out," Miller said.
Within a couple of days, police on jet skis came to rescue Miller and her 10-month-old son, but the nightmare had just begun. From a courthouse floor to a jail cell, they slept wherever officials told them to and didn't eat or drink for three days.
"They said, 'Help's on its way,'" Miller said.
But relief efforts were a long time coming, Miller said, so she hitched a boat ride back to her flooded home. She stayed there another couple of days until the smell and heat took their toll, and then she and her young family fled. Her parents refused to leave.
A boat, dump truck and ferry ride later, they arrived at a crowded airport. Even there, conditions were filthy.
Finally, they got on a plane that they were told was headed to Houston, Texas. When they landed, it was in Salt Lake City.
There they got fresh clothes, shots and showers and use of a telephone. Muhoberac has an uncle, Edward Ryan II, and a cousin, Edward Ryan III, in Jackson, who drove down to pick them up.
They both have worked as bartenders in the French Quarter, but will take whatever work they can find, they said.
Although they know nature is to blame for the hurricane, Miller said the government could have been better prepared for a disaster of this magnitude.
"Nothing was organized," Miller said. "They said they were ready. There's people fighting over food, over water."
The resource center is asking for a car, housing for the Miller-Muhoberac family and jobs for the adults. To help, call 739-4500 or mail donations to: CRC Emergency Relief Fund, P.O. Box 1232, Jackson, WY 83001.
While there are worse places you can end up, its plain bad manners (and more) to lie. Imagine having your home and everything you know taken from you - either by nature, or by the requirement to evacuate - and then being put on a plane to Houston, only to find out that you end up in Salt Lake City?! (New Orleans, Salt Lake City - yeah, bet they're going to love that!)
Air America Radio had callers telling stories of how they drove down to Houston and were denied entry into the Astrodome. Several callers explained how they had empty homes and condos and bedrooms, and went down to Houston to pick up families and were turned away, being told that the evacuees had to be "processed"
Local radio here in Montana is saying that Montana can expect 200 - 500 KATRINA evacuees. Wonder if they know their coming here?