Texas Houses Evacuees in Astrodome
Thousands of refugees who had been sheltered at the beleaguered Superdome in New Orleans are being evacuated to the Houston Astrodome, which has electricity, air-conditioning and flushable toilets. Texas officials say they will also bring many more thousands of evacuees to San Antonio.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
Thousands of refugees from the overburdened Superdome in New Orleans began arriving in buses at Houston's Astrodome today. There they are reacquainting themselves with electricity, showers and flushable toilets. The Astrodome can hold 25,000 people. Still, Texas officials concede that the dome won't come even close to meeting the need. NPR's Robert Smith reports from Houston.
ROBERT SMITH reporting:
One refugee here described New Orleans after the hurricane as hell. The Astrodome, he said, seemed like heaven. Inside the air-conditioned building, it was easy to feel the difference. Cots were set up in these perfect rows; sunlight filtered in from the clear panels of the dome. Lisa Hutcheson from the Red Cross looked out proudly.
Ms. LISA HUTCHESON (Red Cross): People are being fed as we speak. They're in line to get comfort kits, which includes hygiene materials for them. The children are playing in the former bullpens. That's the scene.
SMITH: One of the refugees, Angel Garner from Orleans Parish, beamed as she described breakfast, the first good meal she's had since the hurricane struck.
Ms. ANGEL GARNER (Hurricane Refugee): We ate grits, sausage, eggs, cold drinks, you know, juice.
Unidentified Man: Juice.
Ms. GARNER: This is pretty cool up in there.
SMITH: Since the early morning hours tour buses, school buses, private cars, all carrying refugees, arrived from New Orleans. Some were from the Superdome; others carried people picked up from shelters or from the side of the road. Some people hitchhiked to Houston when they heard the Astrodome was opening and just walked in the front gates. Ernest Turrow(ph) came with nothing but his six-month-old son and a bag of Huggies diapers. He had become separated from his wife and daughter in New Orleans.
Mr. ERNEST TURROW (Hurricane Refugee): I'm going to be all right. I'm going to need some help for my son, that's it, with food and stuff, baby milk and all that.
SMITH: The Houston Astrodome was supposed to be for refugees of the Superdome exclusively, but Red Cross officials had a hard time turning people away. Judge Robert Eckels, the administrator of Harris County, said there are hundreds of unexpected refugees.
Judge ROBERT ECKELS (Administrator, Harris County): The Red Cross, in their initial planning, had this facility for the Superdome. That plan has already gone out the window. We're bringing in buses here, and we're accommodating people that are coming in buses. Some of them will be Superdome evacuees; some of them may be other folks coming in from other parts of Louisiana. That is not something we are encouraging, but that is something that we are dealing with, and we are moving people as they come through.
SMITH: Eckels says the food and water the refugees are receiving are essential, but what they really wanted was phone and TV access.
Judge ECKELS: They're starved for knowledge. We take it for granted; everybody here and the people that are watching have seen what's going on. They've watched this disaster unfold. These folks don't have power, they don't have TV, they don't have radio.
SMITH: SBC, the telecommunications company, is providing a thousand phones for the refugees, and the spokesperson for the Red Cross promised that everyone would get to call their families today. But even with just a few thousand people in the Astrodome so far, the logistical challenge has become daunting. The spokesperson for the Red Cross, Margaret O'Brien-Molina, says many people still haven't been processed yet.
Ms. MARGARET O'BRIEN-MOLINA (Spokesperson, Red Cross): This, we're finding out, just identifying what their needs are, is so complex because even as people are coming in right now, we don't know who we're receiving, we don't know the circumstances that they came from. So informationally it's a huge challenge, and we're trying to get our arms around that.
SMITH: Another issue for officials here is the well-meaning residents of Houston. Last night Good Samaritans started to show up at the dome to drop off food and water, even though there's no facility at the dome for the Red Cross to take it in. Rene Rodriguez set up his barbecue grill across from the Astrodome with sausages and ribs.
Mr. RENE RODRIGUEZ (Houston Resident): Like I say, if anybody's listening from New Orleans, they should come on down here. We're on Holly Hall and Fannin, at the corner. So if you're hungry, we got food out here for you-all.
SMITH: And family members showed up at the gates looking for their relatives. Candi Cauldott(ph) thinks her sister may have made it here from New Orleans.
Ms. CANDI CAULDOTT (Houston Resident): But I don't know if she made it out because of the water and all the problems and everything. And so I'm not sure she's on these buses; I'm just hoping that she is.
SMITH: Communication with New Orleans is so spotty that officials here in Texas don't know who or how many people are on the way. Already they're talking about the certainty that Houston will fill up. San Antonio and Dallas are both offering to take 25,000 refugees. And officials are saying when the Astrodome reaches its limit of 20 to 25,000 people, they'll have to send refugees on to the next city. Robert Smith, NPR News, in Houston.
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