FEMA planning up to 14-day hotel stays for residents evacuated from Garden Grove chemical threat

Preparations are being made for what a Federal Emergency Management Agency document described as a “14-day mass care event” in response to the crisis at the Garden Grove aerospace company, where a malfunctioning chemical storage tank threatens to leak or explode.

It was unclear on Sunday, May 24, whether officials believe residents and businesses will have to be evacuated for two weeks or whether the preparations were a worst-case scenario. Several messages were left with the Orange County Fire Authority seeking comment.

Some 50,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate.

FEMA has a Transitional Sheltering Assistance program that provides “short-term lodging for evacuees,” filling the gap between local shelters and temporary housing.

“It is not temporary housing,” according to the rules in a TSA document.

Expenses will be covered for those staying in participating hotels. Households of four or fewer will be authorized one room; five people or more will get two rooms.

A conference call among FEMA, federal and state agencies must take place to determine whether the TSA will be implemented.

People whose housing is damaged or who are displaced are eligible. They must prove eligibility.

The FEMA document also said that one hospital and 11 nursing homes are in the evacuation zone. The hospital patients and employees were relocated to the Department of State Hospitals-Metropolitan in Norwalk — a psychiatric care facility.