First Hurricane Ida evacuees arrive in Colorado Springs; family of 17

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- When local leaders revealed a week ago that they would start planning a relief effort to help Hurricane Ida victims, the first evacuees had already arrived in town and contacted KRDO NewsChannel 13 Tuesday asking for help.

"That's a surprise and the first I've heard of it," said City Councilman Richard Skorman. "I didn't expect it to happen this soon."

Three New Orleans-area families, all related, said that their homes were destroyed by flooding in Ida's aftermath.

"We lost everything," said Tricellea Washington, the family matriarch. "We don't have anything. We have adults, teens and young children here. As of Tuesday, we've run out of money to buy food, rent rooms or anything."

Washington, a mother of 11, said that she brought her family and relatives to Colorado Springs because she has good memories of the city.

"I came here as a Hurricane Katrina evacuee 16 years ago," she said. "I lived here for a few years before I moved back home. The city had a system all set up -- a center with cots and showers and assistance. I thought it would be here this time. I was surprised that it wasn't."

Washington's father, Solomon Washington, said that he also lived in Colorado for a time and eventually moved back to Louisiana.

After arriving in Colorado Springs last week, half of the family stayed in hotel rooms and the other half stayed in an apartment with Tricellea's three adult sons; Solomon said that he sleeps in one of two cars the group used on the trip.

"But we ran out of money for rooms and the rest of us will get kicked out because the landlord doesn't want that many people in a small apartment," she said.

Solomon wondered why other states are reimbursing evacuees for housing expenses while Colorado isn't.

"We filed a claim with FEMA," he said. "We did everything we were supposed to."

However, FEMA spokesperson Debra Young said that only ten states --Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas -- can provide the agency's Transitional Sheltering Assistance, provided that evacuees qualify.

FEMA also has a Critical Needs Funding program that can provide up to $500 per household in assistance, which likely won't last long for the Washington relatives.

Skorman gave the families his phone number and promised to do what he could to help.

"We can certainly find them places to stay, with hotels and motels out there, and make sure they have food and everything that they need, to have the basic services, health care," he said. "But beyond that, it's just going to be a work in progress. We need a better idea of how many evacuees to expect and whether they plan to stay temporarily or permanently."

Late Tuesday evening, the evacuees said that they had heard from the Red Cross and a city housing official.

"They can help us out with food and maybe gas money, but they can't do much right now, as far as a place for us to stay," Tricellea said.

But she said she confirmed that a hotel in Boulder is accepting hurricane evacuees.

"And I have an appointment Wednesday to see someone in Colorado Springs," she said. "I don't know if we'll drive to Boulder tonight and come back here in the morning. But we'll do what we have to. We survived Ida, so we can drive wherever we have to, to get what we need."

Unfortunately, after driving to Boulder, the group learned that the Boulder hotel wasn't reimbursing evacuees.

The group planned to try the Springs Rescue Mission next.