FEMA offers $4,000 to storm-displaced

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Some 95,000 families displaced by two U.S. Gulf Coast hurricanes in 2005 are being offered as much as $4,000 to return home or give up temporary housing.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the offer Monday in Washington, The New York Times reported.

The agency said people displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita are living in every state except North Dakota. Some receive rental subsidies while others are in FEMA trailers or mobile homes.

"It's a justification to get out of travel trailers back into a more normal life to where they are self-sustaining," FEMA spokeswoman Mary Margaret Walker told the Times.

Applicants for the reimbursements must not have already received more than the current total assistance cap of $26,200 and they must not have received any other relocation aid, Walker said.

The relocation costs are meant to cover travel costs, rental vehicles, furniture movers and gasoline, as well as lodging expenses if the move is more than 400 miles, the report said.