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North Texas Evacuees Still Receiving Help

By Shelley Kofler, KERA News

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-622740.mp3

Dallas, TX – As the nation marks this second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by examining the recovery in New Orleans, a group in North Texas continues to help the evacuees who remain here.

The Long-term Recovery Council, a group of volunteer organizations, say 180-thousand Katrina evacuees originally fled to Dallas-Fort Worth. Some 25-thousand remain.

The Recovery Council's Nikki Beneke says evacuees continue to need help with transportation and housing. She says many came with work experience in the hospitality industry but need additional skills to find jobs here.

Nikki Beneke: We really want people to move toward recovery and I think jobs are a really important key to that. A lot of our agencies are offering job training and there are a lot who are taking advantage of the resources through the community colleges and getting some more education. I think the real long term situation is we need to focus on some trade skills training

Beneke says the Recovery Council is supported through private donations and grants. It plans to remain intact in the event there is a future crisis that requires long-term family assistance.