The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) set a February 13 deadline to evict families from some 12,000 hotel rooms across the country, mostly in the Gulf Coast region. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval denied a motion that day filed on behalf of those slated for eviction.

“I’m lucky because I have a place to go. Lots of others, including many families, are being booted out with no place to go or to put their belongings,” said Thomas. “It’s like pulling teeth to get the trailers from FEMA and now the deadline is coming up for lots of families.”

On the eve of the evictions, these reporters saw hundreds of trailers just arriving on rail carriers. According to the government’s figures, 167,000 homes in New Orleans were severely damaged or destroyed by the flooding.

FEMA has begun setting up the trailer parks in several locations in the city. To get in line for a trailer, however, working people left homeless by the storm face long delays and a maze of red tape.

Natoria Hawkins, a fast-food worker, and Chad Brown, a construction worker, now both unemployed, just moved in to one of the first trailer parks FEMA set up. Before Katrina hit they had an apartment in the Mid-City area of New Orleans. They were evacuated to Baton Rouge and stayed there four months. “We put in our request for the trailer in October but we didn’t get to move in here until three weeks ago,” Hawkins said.

There are about 92 of the trailers sitting on a converted athletic field surrounded by a chain-link fence. Security guards contracted by FEMA check all those going in and out.

“It’s like a prison,” said Billy Christoph, a carpenter who just moved in to the park a week ago with his newborn daughter and fiancée. “This is supposed to be my home, but I can’t park my car inside the park. There’s a 10:00 p.m. curfew for all visitors, and if you’re not on their list, they won’t let you in. At first they wouldn’t let my fiancée through the gate but she’s on the list now.”

Christoph said he signed two of the petitions that have been circulated by residents to demand that FEMA relax these rules. “I really do appreciate the help I got when I was evacuated to Kentucky, the trailer and other help, but this isn’t right,” he said.

As the federal government was carrying out the evictions, Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District officials announced that FEMA would pick up 90 percent of the $182 million tab for refurbishing the hurricane-damaged Superdome. They announced the stadium would open for the fall season as the home field for the New Orleans Saints.

José Aravena contributed to this article.  
 
 
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