Cape Cod prepares to welcome evacuees
Officials fine-tune emergency plans
BOURNE -- Children made signs that read, ''Welcome to Bourne," a school superintendent scrambled to find room for students, and fire chiefs fine-tuned emergency plans as Cape Cod prepared for 2,500 Hurricane Katrina evacuees who could begin arriving at Otis Air National Guard Base today.
Leaders, from the highest levels of state government to local Parent Teacher Associations, tried to account for every last detail yesterday as they worked to turn the Cape from a quiet peninsula of year-round residents and beachgoing vacationers into an efficient and humane refuge.
Preparations stretched from Stacey DuBerger's kitchen in Bourne, where she was organizing a clothing drive with other parents, to the barracks of Camp Edwards at Otis, where National Guardsmen swept the floors and made the beds.
No one knows for certain how long the evacuees will stay, how sick and injured they might be, or how hungry, tired, and emotionally spent they might feel until they step off planes at Logan International Airport in Boston, where they will be evaluated and then bused to Otis to begin this new phase of their lives.
''We can set up volunteers, whatever they need us to do," said Susan Baracchini, 41, of Bourne. She combed through her children's closets yesterday for coats and sweatshirts to donate and read through a dozen e-mails from friends who are looking for ways to help.
''Yes, they're coming from thousand of miles away," said Baracchini, the president of the Bourne Parent Teacher Association. ''But we want to be able to provide, as a community and region, emotional support and material support in a very fundamental way."
Governor Mitt Romney said yesterday that the roughly 100 National Guardsmen on the base are not enough to help the evacuees. He called on residents to volunteer for weeklong stints cooking and serving, counseling, teaching, and providing child care and pet care at the base.
State officials expect the evacuees to spend 30 to 60 days at Camp Edwards, which is part of the sprawling base, where hundreds of military personnel will be living and working on grounds near the evacuees. The 102d Fighter Wing's fleet of F-15 fighter jets will continue using the airstrip at Otis.
At Camp Edwards yesterday, Guard members showed off barracks with gray, cinder-block rooms that resemble college dorms. They have built-in closets; green paisley curtains; beds with squeaky metal frames, and new mattresses, many still wrapped in plastic.
The base has dining halls, a gym with weight room and basketball court, a bowling alley, a nine-hole golf course, a swimming pool, a convenience store, child-care center, and The Roxy, a movie theater now showing ''Wedding Crashers," ''Must Love Dogs," and ''Bad News Bears."
''It is not luxurious by any means," Romney, who toured the base yesterday, said at a news conference at the State House. ''It is a superb facility, military in nature, spartan in terms of its accommodations."
The governor said certain areas of the base would be off limits for the evacuees' safety, and the guests will be warned not to wander into nearby woods. ''I think one of our biggest concerns are deer ticks and coyotes," he said.
He said he would meet with legislative leaders this morning to discuss how much the state may need to spend for the relief effort. The initial request may be about $10 million to $20 million, but the state expects to be reimbursed for most of the cost by the federal government, Romney said.
State officials anticipate that most evacuees will return to live in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast.
''I look at it as if we had a hurricane on Cape Cod, and we were all forced to relocate to Texas or Louisiana. Would we want to come back after it was rebuilt? Of course we would," said state Representative Jeffrey D. Perry, a Sandwich Republican, who said he was talking to local officials on the Cape to prepare for the migration. ''Our job, as I view it, is to make sure the services are there and then help them to relocate."
Officials are also planning for the possibility that some evacuees might decide to settle in Massachusetts. They have pledged to help find jobs and housing for those who want to remain here, though they acknowledge the task is monumental. ''We should house them, but what are we going to do about jobs?" asked Jim Champani, 54, of Falmouth. ''There aren't enough jobs for the locals. They're not going to build New Orleans overnight."
In July, Louisiana had an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent, compared with 4.7 percent in Massachusetts.
Yesterday, however, most residents and officials focused on the immediate task of preparing for the evacuees.
In Bourne, area fire chiefs met to review plans for emergencies at Camp Edwards. They have a longstanding plan that Mashpee Fire Chief George Baker said would safeguard the base's new residents. ''We're ready to assist the base as necessary," he said.
In DuBerger's backyard in Bourne, her 11-year-old daughter, Kayli, and six other fifth-graders spread out pens and posterboard on a picnic table and made signs to display at a rotary near Otis.
''Bourne Cares," one read.
Stacey DuBerger also talked with other parents and the town's Public Works Department to set up drop boxes for clothing and school supplies. ''We are hitting all of our networks to get it done for these people," said DuBerger, past president of the Parent Teacher Association. ''They are coming with nothing, and we are going to be here with open arms. We can show them there's still generosity and compassion in the town."
Bourne Schools Superintendent Edmond LaFleur scrambled yesterday to assess how many evacuees the 2,500-student system, the closest to the base, can handle. He said he needed to consider busing, staffing, and the number of students who might attend a school on the base and schools in town, which began classes last week.
''There are more questions than there are answers now," he said. ''It'll be a challenge, there's no doubt about it. But we need to remember this is about bringing a sense of stability to children who have been uprooted."
Some area universities have accepted students forced to leave the Gulf Coast. Boston University has enrolled 60 students from Tulane University in New Orleans and expects to accept another 40 or more, BU president Robert A. Brown said at a ceremony yesterday.
The University of Massachusetts is offering emergency admissions, and other colleges are also welcoming students from the hurricane zone.
As evacuees head toward the Bay State, 535 Massachusetts National Guard troops -- military police, infantry, and Air National Guard security forces -- flew from Otis to a base in Louisiana yesterday to aid the recovery effort there.
Maria Cramer and Peter Schworm of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 