TALLAHASSEE HOTELIERS TO EVACUEES: SEE 'YA, GET GONE! IT'S A FOOTBALL WEEKEND!

S.V. Dale of the Palm Beach Post capitol bureau writes today about the evacuees from New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf South areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina being evicted from Tallahassee hotels...because it's a football weekend, with Florida State - Miami facing off Monday night at Doak Campbell Stadium.

"There is absolutely no compassion here whatsoever," Lynne Bernard wrote on a bulletin board on the Web site of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. "The Hampton Inn in Tallahassee is pretty much throwing us out because of a football game."

A message left for the manager at the Hampton Inn was not returned, but other hoteliers said there was little they could do to help those who fled homes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama because they had to honor long-standing reservations for the football weekend.

At the Courtyard Marriott near the Capitol, evacuees were taking up 15 of the hotel's 154 rooms on Wednesday. A Quality Inn had several dozen of its 90 rooms occupied by storm refugees.

"This weekend has been booked for a couple of months," said Antwan Hinkle, the Quality Inn's front desk manager.

Hinkle said people who have planned trips for months would not take it well if they were told just days before the game that the hotel could not provide rooms.

However, a Tallahassee church has offered to provide shelter for up to 200 of those affected for four nights starting tonight, and referred them to the local Red Cross chapter.

Those affected should not feel they're alone when it comes to being kicked out for football or other events in the state capitol:

Lawmakers brought in for special sessions during the fall know that their prestige means nothing when they compete for hotel rooms with football fans. And if they extend their sessions into May, they know the feeling of getting evicted in favor of parents arriving for graduation ceremonies.