Missouri FEMA Officials Head To East Coast To Provide Hurricane Relief

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has shifted some of its people in the Kansas City office to Maryland to deal with damage from Hurricane Isabel. But the move does not mean FEMA is pulling out of areas hit by last May’s tornadoes. FEMA had dozens of disaster recovery workers in Missouri last spring, especially in southwest Missouri and southeast Missouri where damage was especially heavy. Only three people are still on the ground in damaged areas mow. One is in the FEMA office in Springfield. Regional Director Dick Hainje says those managers will be on-site for at least a year, helping the two devastated towns come back. Hainje says his agency has nobody working in southeast Missouri, but services are continuing for that part of the state, too. Hainje says the May tornadoes produced a more complex disaster than most tornadoes. He says there’s still a lot of day to day activitity going on. It’s just not as visible as it was in the spring.