HOUSTON, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency is mishandling the distribution of emergency aid to Hurricane Ike victims in Texas, officials say.
Albert Myres, a Gulf Coast Ike Relief Fund executive official, said scores of families throughout south Texas still have not received sufficient government support six weeks after the destructive hurricane struck the region, the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday.
"It's extremely confusing to folks," Myres said. "Kids are still not situated, families are living in cars or tents or in patched-up houses."
Meanwhile, Houston Mayor Bill White has called on FEMA officials to not require victims to submit a Small Business Administration loan application to receive emergency aid from the federal agency.
"The SBA forms and processes are needlessly time-consuming," White said in a letter to FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison.
The Chronicle said since Ike hit the region, FEMA officials have dispensed nearly $300 million in housing aid in response to more than 710,000 requests from Texans.
