Buses to Ship 23,000 People From Superdome to Astrodome

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Buses to Ship 23,000 People From Superdome to Astrodome

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:06:27 AM EDT

Get 'em over here fast then....!

HH

Aug. 31, 2005, 9:42AM

Buses prepared to bring Superdome refugees to Astrodome
From staff and wire reports
HURRICANE KATRINA

NEW ORLEANS — As Army engineers struggled without success to plug New Orleans' breached levees with sandbags and water continued to rise, Texas officials have worked out a plan to bring up to 23,000 refugees from the Superdome to Houston's Astrodome.

The Houston Chronicle has learned hurricane refugees trapped in the Superdome and elsewhere will come to the 40-year-old Astrodome in over 400 buses under plans being put together by state and local officials.

Rusty Cornelius, administrative coordinator for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the refugees being bused to Houston would not necessarily be on the road at the same time. He said specifics of the transport and housing for the refugees were still being worked out with the Red Cross and state government officials.

"We want to accommodate those people as quickly as possible for the simple reason they have been through a horrible ordeal,'' he said.

Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said Perry talked to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco early today and agreed to the plan.

The governor's office has been told the Astrodome's events schedule has been cleared through December, and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said the county would be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Texas officials also have been talking with Jefferson County officials about using the Ford Center in Beaumont as a longterm shelter for refugees stranded in campgrounds, hotels and other temporary quarters, Walt said. Additional shelters could also figure into the plan.

Blanco has said she wanted the Superdome evacuated within two days, along with other gathering points for storm refugees. The situation inside the dank and sweltering Superdome was becoming desperate: The water was rising, the air conditioning was out, toilets were broken, and tempers were rising.

Blanco said today the devastation in New Orleans was deepening, and there was no choice but to abandon the city.

"The challenge is an engineering nightmare,'' Gov. Kathleen Blanco said on ABC's Good Morning America. "The National Guard has been dropping sandbags into it, but it's like dropping it into a black hole.''

As the waters continued to rise in New Orleans, four Navy ships raced toward the Gulf Coast with drinking water and other emergency supplies, and Red Cross workers from across the country converged on the devastated region. The Red Cross reported it had about 40,000 people in 200 shelters across the area in one of the biggest urban disasters the nation has ever seen.

The death toll from Hurricane Katrina reached at least 110 in Mississippi alone, while Louisiana put aside the counting of the dead to concentrate on rescuing the living, many of whom were still trapped on rooftops and in attics.

A full day after the Big Easy thought it had escaped Katrina's full fury, two levees broke and spilled water into the streets on Tuesday, swamping an estimated 80 percent of the bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city, inundating miles and miles of homes and rendering much of New Orleans uninhabitable for weeks or months.

"We are looking at 12 to 16 weeks before people can come in,'' Mayor Ray Nagin said on ABC's "Good Morning America, "and the other issue that's concerning me is have dead bodies in the water. At some point in time the dead bodies are going to start to create a serious disease issue.''

At the same time, sections of Interstate 10, the only major freeway leading into New Orleans from the east, lay shattered, dozens of huge slabs of concrete floating in the floodwaters. I-10 is the only route for commercial trucking across southern Louisiana.

The sweltering city of 480,000 people - an estimated 80 percent of whom obeyed orders to evacuate as Katrina closed in over the weekend - also had no drinkable water, the electricity could be out for weeks, and looters were ransacking stores around town.

"The logistical problems are impossible and we have to evacuate people in shelters,'' the governor said. "It's becoming untenable. There's no power. It's getting more difficult to get food and water supplies in, just basic essentials.''

In addition to the Superdome plan, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was considering putting people on cruise ships, in tent cities, mobile home parks, and so-called floating dormitories - boats the agency uses to house its own employees.

To repair one of the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain, officials late Tuesday dropped 3,000-pound sandbags from helicopters and hauled dozens of 15-foot concrete barriers into the breach. Maj. Gen. Don Riley of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said officials also had a more audacious plan: finding a barge to plug the 500-foot hole.

Riley said it could take close to a month to get the water out of the city. If the water rises a few feet higher, it could also wipe out the water system for the whole city, said New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert.

A helicopter view of the devastation over Louisiana and Mississippi revealed people standing on black rooftops, baking in the sunshine while waiting for rescue boats.

"I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago,'' said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour after touring the destruction by air Tuesday.

All day long, rescuers in boats and helicopters plucked bedraggled flood refugees from rooftops and attics. Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said 3,000 people have been rescued by boat and air, some placed shivering and wet into helicopter baskets. They were brought by the truckload into shelters, some in wheelchairs and some carrying babies, with stories of survival and of those who didn't make it.

"Oh my God, it was hell,'' said Kioka Williams, who had to hack through the ceiling of the beauty shop where she worked as floodwaters rose in New Orleans' low-lying Ninth Ward. "We were screaming, hollering, flashing lights. It was complete chaos.''

Looting broke out in some New Orleans neighborhoods, prompting authorities to send more than 70 additional officers and an armed personnel carrier into the city. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter but was expected to recover, authorities said.

A giant new Wal-Mart in New Orleans was looted, and the entire gun collection was taken, The Times-Picayune newspaper reported. "There are gangs of armed men in the city moving around the city,'' said Ebbert, the city's homeland security chief. Also, looters tried to break into Children's Hospital, the governor's office said.

On New Orleans' Canal Street, dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates on clothing and jewelry stores and grabbed merchandise. In Biloxi, Miss., people picked through casino slot machines for coins and ransacked other businesses. In some cases, the looting took place in full view of police and National Guardsmen.

Blanco acknowledged that looting was a severe problem but said that officials had to focus on survivors. "We don't like looters one bit, but first and foremost is search and rescue,'' she said.

Officials said it was simply too early to estimate a death toll. One Mississippi county alone said it had suffered at least 100 deaths, and officials are "very, very worried that this is going to go a lot higher,'' said Joe Spraggins, civil defense director for Harrison County, home to Biloxi and Gulfport. In neighboring Jackson County, officials said at least 10 deaths were blamed on the storm.

Several of the dead in Harrison County were from a beachfront apartment building that collapsed under a 25-foot wall of water as Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast with 145-mph winds Monday. Louisiana officials said many were feared dead there, too, making Katrina one of the most punishing storms to hit the United States in decades.

Blanco asked residents to spend today in prayer.

"That would be the best thing to calm our spirits and thank our Lord that we are survivors,'' she said. "Slowly, gradually, we will recover; we will survive; we will rebuild.''
Across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, more than 1 million residents remained without electricity, some without clean drinking water. Officials said it could be weeks, if not months, before most evacuees will be able to return.

Emergency medical teams from across the country were sent into the region and President Bush cut short his Texas vacation Tuesday to return to Washington to focus on the storm damage.

Also, the Bush administration decided to release crude oil from federal petroleum reserves to help refiners whose supply was disrupted by Katrina. The announcement helped push oil prices lower.

Katrina, which was downgraded to a tropical depression, packed winds around 30 mph as it moved through the Ohio Valley early today, with the potential to dump 8 inches of rain and spin off deadly tornadoes.

The remnants of Katrina spawned bands of storms and tornadoes across Georgia that caused at least two deaths, multiple injuries and leveled dozens of buildings. A tornado damaged 13 homes near Marshall, Va.

Chronicle staffer Clay Robison and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:08:59 AM EDT

[#1]

Looks like the Astrodome is doomed!!!

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:09:41 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
Get 'em over here fast then....!

HH

Yeah we're stocking up on potential looters here in Houston.
I'm sure they will trash that place like they trashed the Superdome.

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:09:57 AM EDT

[#3]

No, don't send those looters here!

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:10:17 AM EDT

[#4]

Shit, before this is over, there won't be any sports venues left!

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:10:42 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Looks like the Astrodome is doomed!!!

Maybe they'll try to start looting in Texas

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:14:13 AM EDT

[#6]

so .gov's plan for disasters is to use stadiums?

which genius came up with that idea?

(cluster in process)

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:14:23 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Shit, before this is over, there won't be any sports venues left!

Yeah they can do a country-wide tour.
NOLA Ghetto Tour 2005.

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:15:04 AM EDT

[#8]

in texas, looters is just another word for "moving target"

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:18:33 AM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Looks like the Astrodome is doomed!!!

Maybe they'll try to start looting in Texas

They should have sent them to DFW, at least I know the DFW ARFCOM crew could contain any problems.

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:24:18 AM EDT

[#10]

Do these buses have pontoons? Last I heard, the Superdome was surrounded by several feet of water, and most roadways were as well.

I see the government has once again come up with a well-thought out solution to help stupid people...

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:27:34 AM EDT

[#11]

I feel sorry for them.
The Texans, that is.

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:31:37 AM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
....Blanco acknowledged that looting was a severe problem but said that officials had to focus on survivors. "We don't like looters one bit, but first and foremost is search and rescue,'' she said.
...

And how does poping a round in a looter while doing S&R slow things down? See a looter - shoot a looter. You can do it while looking for survivors.

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:31:51 AM EDT

[#13]

half of those people will turn into squatters and never leave.

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:42:56 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
half of those people will turn into squatters and never leave.

Uhhh, you mean bums, right?

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:46:41 AM EDT

[#15]

I feel sorry for Houston. You are getting the flotsum of a major third world city for good.

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:50:38 AM EDT

[#16]

I don't think for a second that HPD will let these people damage the Dome in any way....we're not experiencing the chaos over here that they have over there-which allowed many of them to pull the crap they did.

HH

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:50:54 AM EDT

[#17]

Dallas is also getting some.. at the reunion arena ..

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:53:17 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
Do these buses have pontoons? Last I heard, the Superdome was surrounded by several feet of water, and most roadways were as well.

I see the government has once again come up with a well-thought out solution to help stupid people...

Uh thats what the LCACs are for, to get them from the dome to where the highways begin again.

Posted: 8/31/2005 7:55:48 AM EDT

[#19]

Dupe. http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=384637

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Buses to Ship 23,000 People From Superdome to Astrodome

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