Judge extends FEMA's Katrina relief

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- A U.S. federal judge in New Orleans has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to extend its payments of hotel bills for Hurricane Katrina victims.

The ruling, by Judge Stanwood Duval of the Eastern District of Louisiana, covers 42,000 evacuee families still living in 4,000 hotels in 47 states and the District of Columbia. FEMA had previously said it would stop paying for their rooms on Dec. 15 or Jan. 7, depending on their proximity to the disaster zone.

Duval ordered the deadline moved to Feb. 7, and criticized the agency for making an "arbitrary deadline" that was "unduly callous," the New York Times reported.

"It is unimaginable what anxiety and misery these erratic and bizarre vacillations by FEMA have caused these victims, all of whom, for at least one point in time, had the very real fear of being without shelter for Christmas," Duval wrote in his ruling.

Since the Aug. 29 storm battered the Gulf Coast, the hotel program has cost $350 million and at its peak included 85,000 rooms in all 50 states.