FEMA Pulls Cruise Ships For Emergency Shelters

FEMA has asked and recieved 3 Carnival crusise ships to help house victems of the Katrina disaster. The Ecstasy, the Sensation and the Holiday will be pulled from service Monday and thier regular cruises canceled to ass
ist with the disaster. Carnival has canceled the crusies scheduled on those 3 ships for at least 6 months

ORLANDO, Fla. - Three Carnival Cruise Lines ships have been pressed into service by the government to provide shelter for as many as 7,000 hurricane victims.

The Ecstasy, the Sensation and the Holiday will be pulled from regular use starting Monday at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The cost of the charters was not disclosed.

Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said Saturday from Miami, where the company is based, that pleasure cruises were canceled to make the ships available for the next six months.
news.yahoo.com...

Its actually something smart that FEMA has done for a change. The ships are basicaly self sufficient cities that can house nearly 8000 people. I wonder how much it will cost??

This was a stupid over reaction to media pressure. What ever it costs is too much. Regular cargo ships would be better. The cost to refurbish these ships after they are turned into "HUD" housing disasters will be astronomical.

It is my hope these ships will go to Miss or Alabama. That would make more sense.......NO has been punished by GOD for the EVIL that is done there......

God Bless America and GW and those in this event OUTSIDE New Orleans.

The cruise lines are probably setup the same way as the airlines are. The airlines are all part of the CRAF, and in return for surrendering planes to the Pentagon for airlift support, when it comes time for the Pentagon to choose which airlines for the military to transport on when they are transferring around or just travelling then the airlines involved receive a better chance at getting that contract. I doubt they have that kind of agreement with the cruise lines, but it would be in their best interest in the long term to work with the government with something like this. I'm sure that there are things they can get to assist them if times get rough on the cruise lines.

www.cbo.gov...

CRAF I have known about, but I did not know there was a ship version as well. Since most ships are not US flagged for tax reasons, I wonder if they could even commandeer them legaly because of that. Lord knows we don't want to offend Liberia.


I have looked to see if there is a CRAF for ships but have had no luck.

What they really need to do is move in some Tarawa and San Bernadino class ships to the area. They have a huge freshwater making capacity and medical spaces.

I'm not sure that it's the same agreement with the cruise lines, since like you said most of them are foreign flagged, but I'm willing to bet they have some sort of agreement, to get some kind of break from the government in return for helping. If not they'll negotiate one.

As far as the Tarawa/Essex classes, I'm sure they have either one of them or a CVN they're working on getting there, but it takes time to get them ready to sail if they aren't already worked up or working up. After the Tsunami they were lucky in that the Lincoln was already undergoing workups for her deployment that was coming up soon anyway, so she was able to sail almost immediately.

Hey, look what I just found.

Iwo Jima and the amphibious transport dock USS Shreveport (LPD 12), as well as the dock landing ship USS Tortuga ('___' 46) and the rescue and salvage ship USS Grapple (ARS 53) – both based at Naval Amphibious Base (NAB) Little Creek, Va., will join the Norfolk-based USS Bataan (LHD 5) that is already off the Gulf Coast.
www.news.navy.mil...

USS Harry S Truman, USS Wibdey Island, USNS Arctic, USNS Comfort are either on the way, or preparing for deployment.
www.news.navy.mil...
www.news.navy.mil...

Thats excellent news. The Tarawa's come with alot of Chopters and the truman can offload its airwing and load up on Seahawks as well

From what I'm reading they're taking helos from Pensacola and other nearby bases and adding them to the ships. I'm not sure about the Bataan but Tarawa stopped to load up with supplies before heading down. It SOUNDS like Bataan deployed for SAR, with Tarawa and the others following up with the supplies. Whidbey Island will be a HUGE benefit to the operations there. She's rather unique. She'll support 4 LCACs, and can be flooded to serve as a boat dock with repair/loading facilities. IIRC she also has the ability to deploy causeway equipment.

Oops, forgot the link.
www.whidbey-island.navy.mil...

[edit on 4-9-2005 by Zaphod58]