VIDALIA &045; With about a dozen shelters still open in Adams County and Concordia Parish and hotels booked, leaders of three Miss-Lou communities want a long-term housing plan for Hurricane Katrina’s evacuees.

And if they don’t get answers from federal officials, they are looking to make their own plans.

&uot;I think we need to make a Miss-Lou housing (plan),&uot; said Teresa Dennis, director of the Concordia Economic Development District. &uot;We need a very creative plan that helps evacuees and works for the communities.&uot;

Natchez Mayor Phillip West, Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland, Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen, Dennis, United Way Director Kathy Stephens and social worker Sharon Marie Chester met Tuesday to get the ball rolling towards finding a solution.

The group will meet again to develop a plan to provide long-term housing for evacuees.

The problem has been getting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to commit to a specific plan for housing in the area.

&uot;I had two different groups talking about doing temporary trailers or more permanent housing,&uot; Allen said. &uot;I want someone to say, ‘This is going to happen.’&uot;

Stephens said she’s dealt with FEMA officials and is tired of hearing about potential plans.

&uot;I don’t want a FEMA visitor who will tell me what ‘might’ happen,&uot; Stephens said. &uot;I want my FEMA person who can say, ‘This is what we’re going to do and this is where. We have to get past eyeballing and get to doing something with it.&uot;

Natchez City Hall workers asked evacuees receiving Red Cross checks to fill out a survey about their long-term plans, West said.

&uot;We wanted to get some sense of the needs of these people,&uot; West said.

&uot;I think we got maybe 70 percent of them (to answer).&uot;

The group decided to assess the survey and come up with a long-term housing plan for evacuees that can be presented to FEMA and other potential sources of funding.

&uot;We need to decide if it would give us more clout to go the federal government together with a Miss-Lou plan,’&uot; West said.

Allen also discussed some of the ideas Ferriday is already attempting

to implement, including housing evacuees in vacant houses and potentially opening the old seventh-grade school on Florida Avenue as a long-term shelter.