New Orleans TSA Screeners Find a Port After Katrina

Larry Weber fled New Orleans two days after Hurricane Katrina hit, eventually heading east in his Honda Accord on an eerily dark interstate and stopping anywhere he could find gas.

He made it to Atlanta, where his grown daughter has a four-bedroom house. He didn't know it at the time, but he also had a job waiting for him.

As a federal security screener at the New Orleans airport, Weber, 62, could report for duty at any U.S. airport and be guaranteed a job for six months.

The Transportation Security Administration calls it the "Safe Haven" program, and it has helped Weber and other screeners find some stability after the storm.

The program --- in place for several years --- adds some extra cost to the TSA's budget, although the agency is paying New Orleans screeners their full salary whether they are working at another airport or not.

Each of the 12 screeners who relocated to Atlanta gets a daily housing and food allowance of up to $164, depending on how much help they're also getting from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Red Cross. The allowance varies by city, based on a cost-of-living formula.

"Everyone's arms have been wide open and welcoming," Weber said of his new co-workers in Atlanta. "They just opened up the love gates."

Weber says he has had it easier than some of his former New Orleans colleagues. One was rescued from the roof of her home as the floodwaters rose. The TSA provides counseling and has helped the new workers find housing and paid their travel expenses --- including Weber's $3.30-a-gallon gas on his trip to Atlanta.

Each of the screeners went through a brief orientation, then began working at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's main checkpoint. Weber started Sept. 19. Like Weber, most of the New Orleans screeners do the early morning shift, 3:30 a.m. to noon.

"They're just pretty much grateful they have a place to go and a job to go to," said Bill Lyons, an organizer for the American Federation of Government Employees who has met with some of the new Atlanta screeners.

Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport received the biggest number of former New Orleans screeners --- 21.

The program helps Hartsfield-Jackson, which has reduced its screener force because of a federally imposed cap on hiring. The New Orleans screeners don't count against Atlanta's limit, said TSA spokesman Christopher White.

They'll be especially needed come Thanksgiving, which is expected to be the busiest since 2000.

Weber was on duty at the New Orleans airport before Hurricane Katrina hit.

After the last plane left, he unplugged metal detectors to protect them from power surges and moved equipment away from windows. He and his co-workers then retreated to an airport Hilton hotel where they ate cold sandwiches and watched the storm through plate glass windows.

"It looked like a normal hurricane," said the lifelong New Orleans resident. Because they only had sporadic news from the radio and cellphones, it was days before he realized the extent of the damage.

Weber's family members, including his 82-year-old mother, left the city before the storm hit. His mother's home in the upper Ninth Ward and his apartment were destroyed.

For now, Weber has found comfort in the New Orleans-style decor of his entrepreneur daughter's Buckhead home, with its elaborate fireplace mantels in every room and antiques and artwork from the French Quarter.

He soon will move into his own apartment. If his mother is willing to relocate to Atlanta, he may decide to stay here, he said.

Weber said he finds some solace in the belief that, in an uncertain world, he at least is helping to make the skies safer for travelers.

"Air safety is something we can control," he said. "The weather we can't control."

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