| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Officials Hope to Evacuate Superdome by Tonight |
| 2005-09-02 |
| Edited for new information, and to cut out all the whining. Buses and aircraft have increased the number of rescue trips from the dome, which should be emptied by 8 p.m. tonight, Brig. Gen Mark Graham, who is overseeing disaster relief, told reporters in Baton Rouge. He said 10,000 Superdome refugees were evacuated to Texas on Thursday. This morning, military aircraft flew more refugees to Lackland Air Force base in Texas and there are plans to move other refugees to Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia in a 24-hour-a day air operation, he said. A bus carrying refugees overturned near Opelousas, La., killing one and injuring 10. Emptying the dome would go far toward reliving some of the pressure on the city, but there are still thousands of refugees at other centers, including the convention center. Troops plowed through water-clogged streets in New Orleans bringing food and water to there. Texas has agreed to accept up to 75,000 evacuees, with a third in the Houston Astrodome. But officials at the Astrodome stopped accepting evacuees after about 15,000 people jammed the facility. There are so many people there that the post office gave the Astrodome its own ZIP Code, 77320, so that the refugees can receive packages from relatives. Another 3,000 people from New Orleans are being housed at a nearby basketball arena and 11,000 cots have been set up in the convention center. In effect, the Astrodome will become an intake center where people are evaluated. Then they will be sent to other shelters in the city and around the state. The goal is to put people "in places where they can go on with their lives with dignity and respect. It is not acceptable to have a permanent refugee situation," said Mayor Bill White. Two dozen doctors are examining the evacuees at the Astrodome. Some 75 people were classified as critical and sent to hospitals. Most of the people are suffering from dehydration and water-borne diseases from walking through the unhealthy conditions in New Orleans' flooded streets. There have been two deaths, one a cancer patient and the other an elderly woman who had chest pains. Behind the convention center a New Orleans policeman, who would not give his name, asked: "When are they going to save us? We are stranded too." Fires are becoming an increasing hazard. There was another large explosion in the city this morning, at a chemical storage facility in an industrial sector along the Mississippi River. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |