Cruise Ship Shelter Plan Dropped

According to a published report in the Galveston County Daily News, federal officials have abandoned plans to house more than 4,000 Hurricane Katrina survivors on luxury liners in Galveston, based on the fact that no one displaced by Hurricane Katrina seemed interested to move aboard. The decision ended a chaotic week for city officials, who for four days raced to sort out the logistics of providing transportation, water and school buses to cruise ships that would essentially house small cities on public docks. The federal government’s reportedly paid Carnival Corp. $192 million to provide the temporary housing. The Federal Emergency Management Agency last week also agreed to pay Carnival $44 million for fuel reimbursements related to the shelters for an agreement worth $236 million, according to the newspaper report.