State department officials are declining to estimate how much the federal government is paying to transport Americans home from war-torn Beirut.
Citizens will not have to reimburse the government for transportation from Beirut to Cyprus and Turkey ? most aboard helicopters and cargo ships ? and from there to the U.S. on chartered flights. About 1,900 Americans arrived in “repatriation centers” set up in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Atlanta airports Monday, and more are expected through Wednesday, Maryland emergency officials said.
In all, 12,600 Americans have made government-funded evacuations from Lebanon since July 16. Two state department spokesmen said they are not releasing cost estimates until the evacuations are complete.
Officials from the federal Administration for Children and Families, which is organizing comfort services once the passengers arrive in America, recanted estimated costs as of Friday at $200,000 and declined to offer accurate estimates Monday.
State employees and local Red Cross volunteers have been working around the clock to greet just more than 2,000 evacuees at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall airport since Thursday, including about 300 Monday.
They are helping evacuees arrange connecting flights, book hotel rooms and provide food ? which improved from sandwiches to hot traditional Middle Eastern meals ? and cash assistance.
Officials from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, which is coordinating the Baltimore effort, also declined to estimate those expenses, but said the federal government will likely reimburse the state.
Evacuees receiving cash assistance and flight vouchers are signing promissory notes of payments, they said.
“We?re keeping track of the money, but most of this is going to be reimbursed from the federal government, if not every penny,” said Jeff Welsh, MEMA spokesman.
Meanwhile, local residents are questioning a government-funded mass evacuation from a country that is long known for political friction.
“Lebanon is not Disney World or Kings Dominion,” said Dundalk resident Donald Ford. “You go, get stuck there and whine and cry you need to come home.”
Wade Horn, director of the ACF, said as many as 15,000 people could be repatriated from Lebanon ? making it one of the United States? largest repatriation efforts.
