Thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees had to leave local hotels starting Tuesday, unless the Federal Emergency Management Agency granted them an extension.
About 19,000 evacuees received FEMA extensions for the next two weeks. Around 5,000 didn't contact the agency by the Jan. 30 deadline. Locally, 186 Central Texas hotel rooms still have evacuees.
Like Larry Nettles, who has lived at the La Quinta Inn in downtown Austin for five months. He thought Tuesday would be his last day here. An emergency extension came through at Monday night, just an hour before the midnight deadline.
"We got a call and we extended his stay then to the 13th," La Quinta manager Allen Bright said.
Seventy-three percent of evacuees received extensions to stay two weeks past Tuesday's deadline.
The La Quinta is one of 68 hotels in Travis County still housing evacuees. The one downtown has six rooms occupied by those displaced by the hurricane.
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FEMA deadline
Katrina evacuees have to start paying their hotel bills or find a new place to sleep.
 
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Nettles needed extra time to hook up utilities in his new
apartment. He plans to move in next week. FEMA works with people in similar circumstances to grant emergency extension.
"It's an 'authorization code' that says I have a housing plan in
place. I am either going back to live with family or I am going to find an apartment. But I haven't got it yet. Or am waiting for a travel trailer or my furniture is coming. Could be a number of reasons to indicate to us that you have a recovery plan but need just a little more time to stay in a hotel," FEMA spokesperson Frank Mansell said.
But there's still about 2,000 people who didn't get extensions past the deadline. Not all of them have moved on to permanent situations.
The nonprofit Basic Needs Coalition of Central Texas expects
to see more people seeking help in the next few weeks, and Central Texans say they'll make sure no one gets lost in the transition.
"If we really knew that they were going to be out on the street
we'd make accomodations one way or the other," Bright said. "There's a lot of charitable organizations that have
offered help."
