New Orleans – Lawyers asked for a temporary restraining order Sunday to stop the planned evictions today of 12,000 families left homeless by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita from hotels across the nation.
“We have provided the court with statements from people showing they have not been treated fairly by FEMA,” said Bill Quigley, an assistant dean of the Loyola University Law School.
The attorneys delivered the papers to the home of federal Judge Stanley Duvall. It was not immediately clear when he would act on the motion.
The 12,000 families made homeless by last year’s storms are scheduled to be forced out of their federally funded hotel rooms today, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Saturday.
That amounts to about 40,000 people, Quigley said, many of whom have not received trailers as promised and some who did not find out about the eviction until the beginning of the month.
