25,000 Louisiana Refugees To Head To San Antonio
AUSTIN (AP) – After opening the Astrodome in Houston to Hurricane Katrina refugees, the state of Texas has agreed to take in 25,000 more evacuees from Louisiana and house them in San Antonio, the governor’s office said Thursday.
Louisiana requested that Texas provide shelter for the evacuees, and Perry has spoken with the mayor and county judge in San Antonio to begin making the plans, said Robert Black, spokesman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. “We don’t know where, we don’t know a timetable yet,” Black said. More details were expected later Thursday.
The refugees are in addition to the approximately 25,000 that are being moved into the Astrodome in Houston, mostly from the Superdome in New Orleans. After Katrina’s winds whipped New Orleans and floodwaters inundated much of the city and trapped thousands, looting and other lawlessness erupted.
Some residents expect it could be weeks or months before they are able to return. Some plan to move permanently to Texas. “I’m not going back. I’m going to rebuild in Dallas,” said Thomas Washington, 46, a New Orleans resident who came to Texas in a caravan of cars carrying 26 people.
The group left New Orleans on Sunday and first went to a Comfort Inn in Dallas. Then, money ran low and they moved to a Motel 6. Ultimately they turned to the evacuee shelter at Reunion Arena, where about 600 people are now registered.
Washington, who works as a security officer at a Naval facility near New Orleans, said his home near Lake Pontchartrain is gone. “All I have is a pair of jeans and a shirt,” he said. American Red Cross shelters also have opened in Austin, the Houston area and southeast Texas.
Texas is Louisiana’s biggest neighboring state and a relatively close drive for evacuees, who were able to head out on Interstate 10 and Interstate 20 into Texas. The Alamodome in San Antonio is an enclosed stadium next to downtown that could presumably become a shelter for Louisiana residents.
The displaced New Orleans Saints football team will be practicing in San Antonio at Trinity University and hasn’t decided yet whether to play games in the 65,000-seat Alamodome this season.
Perry, who agreed with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Wednesday to take in the evacuees, said that afternoon that Texas naturally wants to help its neighbor to the east deal with the tragedy.
“I think we all understand it’s by the grace of God that this terrible tragedy didn’t come ashore a few hundred miles west,” Perry said. “And knowing such a catastrophe could have happened here, I think Texans have a very special bond between our neighbors to the east who are going through an absolutely unbelievable ordeal at this point in time.”
By KELLEY SHANNON Associated Press Writer
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-09-01-05 1309EDT
