FEMA Spokesperson says Superdome number underestimated
9/2/2005 3:45 pm CT source: WWL-TV
FEMA Spokesperson: The first estimate we got was that about 10,000 at the Superdome had to be rescued and it's been in the tens of thousands.
Storm refugees snarl Superdome evacuations
At the front of the line, the weary refugees... happily hopped on buses that would deliver them from the horrendous conditions of the Superdome. At the back end of the line, people jammed against police barricades in the rain.
Capt. John Pollard of the Texas Air Force National Guard said 20,000 people were in the dome when the evacuation efforts began. By Thursday afternoon, the number had swelled to about 30,000.
At one point, the guards held up the line so a young teen at the front could go get her sister, farther back. The situation in the back of the line was vastly different. National Guardsmen stood side by side with rifles. Luggage, bags of clothes, pillows, blankets were strewn in the puddles.
The Astrodome's new residents will be issued passes that will let them leave and return as they please, something that wasn't permitted in New Orleans.
New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes
About 15,000 to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at New Orleans convention center grew ever more hostile after waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead. Police Chief Eddie Compass said there was such a crush around a squad of 88 officers that they retreated when they went in to check out reports of assaults. "We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten," Compass said. "Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon."
Every so often, an armored state police vehicle cruised in front of the convention center with four or five officers in riot gear with automatic weapons. But there was no sign of help from the National Guard. Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, "'Go to hell _ it's every man for himself.'"
At the hot and stinking Superdome, where 30,000 were being evacuated by bus to the Houston Astrodome, fistfights and fires erupted amid a seething sea of tense, suffering people who waited in a lines that stretched a half-mile to board yellow school buses. After a traffic jam kept buses from arriving for nearly four hours, a near-riot broke out in the scramble to get on the buses that finally did show up, with a group of refugees breaking through a line of heavily armed National Guardsmen. One military policeman was shot in the leg as he and a man scuffled for the MP's rifle, police Capt. Ernie Demmo said. The man was arrested.
Donald Dudley, a 55-year-old New Orleans seafood merchant, complained that when he and other hungry refugees broke into the kitchen of the convention center and tried to prepare food, the National Guard chased them away. "They pulled guns and told us we had to leave that kitchen or they would blow our damn brains out," he said. "We don't want their help. Give us some vehicles and we'll get ourselves out of here!"
Some refugees turned away at the Astrodome gates
...officials announced the [Reliant Astrodome] landmark could be used by those displaced from New Orleans' Superdome. Storm victims who made it to Houston on their own instead of being evacuated by bus from New Orleans were not allowed past the Astrodome's gates.
The Astrodome was being reserved only for those 23,000 refugees expected to be evacuated from the Superdome... The Superdome evacuees already have been screened to ensure they qualify for assistance.
FOOTNOTE: Comment on Kaye's Hurricane Katrina blog on 9/3/05 from r.d. maus: On the first day the Astrodome was reported to be accepting evacuees, people who were already in Houston but had run out of money were being turned away becaus they were not "being bused" into the city. I emailed Jacqueline Salmon at the Washington Post about the situation and the next day the Chronicle picked up the story... and Houston city leaders changed their minds and started letting those who fled NOLA early into the Dome.
Homeland Security Press Conference
Secretary Chertoff, Homeland Security: The fact of the matter is, the Superdome is secure. Understandably, there are crowd control issues. People are anxious, they're impatient, they're hot, they're tired, they want to get some place else. That is more than understandable. The National Guard has several hundred people present. The city police are present. They are managing the crowds. There was a shooting incident yesterday. The incident was resolved with a leg wound to a National Guardsman and the subsequent arrest of the person who was involved in the shooting.
New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes
"We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten," [Police Chief Eddie] Compass said.
At the hot and stinking Superdome, where 30,000 were being evacuated by bus to the Houston Astrodome...
Unrest Intensifies at Superdome Shelter
The Superdome, where some 25,000 people were being evacuated by bus to the Houston Astrodome, descended into chaos.
...the ambulance service in charge of taking the sick and injured from the Superdome suspended flights after a shot was reported fired at a military helicopter.
From Superdome to Astrodome: Evacations In New Orleans Underway
8/31/2005 9:07 pm source: WAFF 48
A slow exodus from the smelly and sweltering Superdome began Wednesday... The evacuation was kept almost secret to avoid a stampede.
It was not immediately clear how long the refugees will be in Houston, 350 miles from New Orleans. The Astrodome's schedule has been cleared through December...
Phillip Triggs, 40, wasn't keen on the idea of being forced to Texas. Cots and blankets for up to 25,000 people were being set up on the Astrodome's floor.
Katrina Refugees En Route to Astrodome
9/1/2005 12:11 am ET source: Breitbart.com
Dr. Kevin Stephens Sr., in charge of the special needs shelter at the dome, described the Superdome and a nearby arena as a health department's nightmare. "These conditions are atrocious," he said. "We'll take trucks, planes, boats, anything else, I have to get these people out of here."
"I'm ready to get away from here. Anybody in their right mind would be," said David Ellis... Louis Delasorsse, 38, had been at the Superdome since it opened. "It's no picnic staying here."
Are the Superdome 'refugees' being 'forced' bused to the Astrodome?
There have been no reports stating if the Superdome refugees are being 'forced' bused to the Astrodome in Houston, Texas USA.
Do the refugees have the option of getting off the buses?
I believe in the coming weeks, it will be very interesting to hear the Superdome refugees side of the story.
Let America be warned - Every person in New Orleans has lost all of their constitutional rights because of martial law.
This is the first phase of conditioning Americans to accept martial law as a way of life. --Greg Ericson
Katrina's refugees will be moved to Houston in bus convoy
...authorities have found a new home for the building's nearly 25,000 hurricane refugees: the Astrodome in Houston.
The [Super]dome is still surrounded by flooded streets, and the floodwaters are threatening the generators providing electricity for the remaining lighting. There has been no air conditioning and only limited lights since power went out during the hurricane Monday.
Superdome is a refuge, but miserable at the same time
"We're doing everything we can to keep these people comfortable," Gen. Ralph Lupin, commander of the National Guard troops at the Superdome, said Tuesday morning. "We're doing our best. It's not getting any better but we're trying not to let it get any worse."
"I know people want to leave, but they can't leave," he said. "There's 3 feet of water around the Superdome."
