Improving conditions in some coastal areas and vigorous local sponsorship efforts have buoyed hopes that all evacuees in Vicksburg shelters can be moved by week’s end.

About 70 remained at Vicksburg Convention Center, according to a Wednesday count by American Red Cross officials.

“Cell service is coming back. People are finally able to hear from friends and relatives who either made it back or stayed. If there’s a way back home, they’re going home,” said Janice Sawyer, director of emergency services for the local chapter of American Red Cross.

Sawyer’s comments come on the heels of announcements made Wednesday from officials in Jefferson Parish that the cities of Gretna and Westwego, along with the town of Jean Lafitte, were safe for permanent return in spite of electricity and water supplies being not up to standard.

Kenner and Harahan, opposite the Mississippi River from those cities, were set to open to residents today.

Red Cross figures from over the weekend, when evacuee totals approached 600, showed that 392 of those were Louisiana residents.

First Baptist Church, set to close Saturday at 9 a.m., recorded 75 Wednesday.

Randall Williams, Red Cross shelter director at Bowmar Baptist, set to close Friday at 9 a.m., recorded 70 people today, but does not expect to send many to the convention center Friday.

“We expect to have fewer than 20 left by Saturday because they have been leaving throughout the day,” Williams said, addressing a briefing of the Joint Command Center established at Vicksburg Convention Center. He said airline tickets have been purchased for some.

Coordinators of the Vicksburg Community Transitional Team, a group of church clergy and United Way volunteers, continued to interview evacuees trying to match them with possible sponsor families or groups both here and nationally.

“More than anything else, it has helped them make a decision as to what they want to do,” said Steve Duncan, senior pastor of Living Word Baptist Church and assistant chaplain for the convention center shelter.

In other developments: