NATCHEZ – The most pressing concern of evacuees and officials in the Miss-Lou – with the exception of Hurricane Rita – is the problem of finding temporary housing.

And while the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been making progress in the area, local government officials aren’t waiting around for it to help.

Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen said the city is doing all it can to help its evacuees find a home.

“We’re trying to find every vacant lot, contacting people who own land to rent or sell to displaced people,” he said.

Allen said Ferriday is making houses available and that each day “we’re cutting on new water and electricity.”

“We’re trying to move forward, trying to make sure evacuees have a place to live. We hope that FEMA will come in, if they’re going to help, we welcome it.”

FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said the organization is working to get temporary housing set up, but welcomed local officials to work on their own.

“We suggest that they contact us and get assistance, but if they are able to take that upon themselves and find resources for their residents, then we encourage that,” he said.

McIntyre said each affected state has been assigned a public assistance coordinator. Local officals can check with this person in order to verify that expenditures made toward temporary housing are reimbursable.

While FEMA has yet to move any evacuees in the Miss-Lou into temporary housing, but that could change soon.

There are 34 trailers and nine mobile homes – all FEMA-owned – situated in Donald’s Camper Village in Vidalia. Co-owner Regina Donald said the organization has been working hard to prepare the sites for evacuees to move in.

“It’s been really amazing what they’ve done in two weeks,” she said.

“We’re excited about it. People are totally disoriented and are excited to see that somebody’s doing something for them.”

Housing assignments for the sites will be made by FEMA

While he is glad to hear of the project, Vidalia Mayor Hiram Copeland said he has not heard from FEMA otherwise, probably because of his city’s lack of housing options.

“We already had a housing shortage (before Katrina),” he said.

On the other side of the river, Natchez Mayor Philip West said, while there is no firm plan in place yet, the city is working hard on the problem.

He had a meeting with Jack Abram of the Housing and Urban Development office to work on a solution and has a conference call today – along with other mayors – to discuss matters with the Governmental Affairs Division of the White House.

Until a plan – with or without FEMA’s guidance – is in place, the shelters and hotels will continue to house the Natchez evacuee population.

“We are working on it now…it is very much on my mind,” West said.

In other housing news, FEMA asked the public Tuesday for help in locating temporary housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Those who can help FEMA fill its need for commercial mobile home parks with large numbers of available spots, lots with built-in utilities or vacant commercial buildings that could be made into multi-family housing are asked to register these spaces with the Southwest Emergency Resource Network (SWERN) at www.swern.gov. The service is free and a useful resource for FEMA.

On a smaller scale, the Disaster Housing Resource Online (www.dhronline.org) is accepting listings from individual property owners who have an apartment of house for rent. This listing service is also free and broken down by state for easy searching by evacuees.

Rental assistance is available through the Individual Housing Program.

Another website, www.msdisasterhousing.org, allows people to search for and list rental properties.

People needing temporary housing, renters as well as homeowners, are eligible for grants from FEMA to help get started.

“If it turns out to be an eligible claim, then FEMA would provide a grant for people to rent an alternate accommodation,” FEMA spokesman Eugene Brezany said.