Evacuees Not Coming to Cleveland

(Cleveland, Ohio) Early last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency notified officials to expect up to 400 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina to arrive at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Thursday. In response, authorities prepared the Cleveland Convention Center to receive the influx.

On Wednesday, officials were notified that the flights carrying Katrina victims would not be coming to Ohio. No explanation was provided.

Around noon on Thursday, Mayor Jane Campbell was told that evacuees would be coming to Cleveland after all. Emergency and relief workers made preparations.

On Saturday, an announcement was made that all plans were canceled and the evacuees would not be coming to Ohio. No official explanation for the on-again, off-again plan has been provided.

However, one media report states that the evacuees just didn't want to come to Cleveland. The survivors consider Cleveland to be too far away from the area they call home. This explanation is a positive sign. Evidently, the victims of Katrina on the Gulf Coast have every intention of returning to and rebuilding their homes.

So, the reason the evacuees are not coming to Cleveland has nothing to do with Cleveland, per se. It has to do with leaving the area they call home. Consequently, it's an unfounded argument that people would rather be in a disease-ridden, flooded, and mosquito-infested swamp than come to Cleveland.