Aid groups learn from response to Katrina

In the District suburbs, emergency workers do not expect to evacuate residents in most emergency scenarios, but they are planning to receive evacuees from other areas as they did after Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast.

Networks of local charities formed to aid evacuees fleeing from Katrina were strengthened by lessons learned in that effort, Maryland Department of Human Resources officials told participants of a severe-weather conference in Columbia Tuesday.