Inside the Astrodome

I have some observations of my own, but they're still a little too raw (and frankly, I am having difficulty finding the words). So here's a few accounts from others...



From a Friday afternoon e-mail:



And from Friday evening:



And here's just part of ray of light's post from Saturday morning:

It is only a matter of time. This is madness.

I was assigned to the Reliant Arena next to the dome, where about 6000 evacuees are housed. Things were pretty organized over there. I spent most of my time tending to a little four year old girl who wandered off of her cot and over to me. She couldn't identify her cot or her family. We had a very difficult time reuniting her with her family. It took many, many hours and took some strange twists in part because the registration system they are using when people check into the shelter does not seem to be all it could be. I became this girl's mom for nine hours. Yes, it really did take that long. Part of the problem is that we were dealing with some irresponsible family members. This sweet little girl sure has a lot to deal with. I think those nine hours of stability that I provided her were a good thing for her. She was sick and I stayed with her through an IV and breathing treatment in the medical area which was well run. Bravo, Houston medical community.

I encounterd very nice, polite citizens of Louisiana who had been through unimaginable things who were managing to be friendly and patient. If you know about the New Orleans concept of lagniappe, I suggest you give all you can to these people who don't deserve what is happening to them and then add some lagniappe on top of that.

Considering what these people have just been through, I am sure they are exhausted and many are out of their minds. Under such conditions, coping with day to day things like keeping an eye on a wandering toddler can become difficult.

Thanks for your story and for volunteering. Your final comments are dead on.

The story isn't about keeping an eye on a wandering toddler. It's about a custody issue, leaving a child with a stranger. The mom walked out of the shelter and left her kid there. The grandmother did the same. The kid was abandoned, basically. The dad and and aunt came in from the outside and claimed custody, which they didn't have, but never the less, they claimed that. Very bad stuff went on and suddenly the kid I cared for over nine hours became a battleground. CPS got involved, the cops got involved, DPS got involved. The story is too long to tell here. Very, very serious stuff.

I hope the red cross folks who are running the shelter learned something from this and have now set up procedures for dealing with missing kids in the Reliant facilities. Because you are right, obviously kids will wander off from their family group in the night over and over again in the months ahead. And, it is quite possible that an abandonment situation will be a part of the scenario again and it doesn't need to be a very bumpy nine hour ordeal like what this little girl and I experienced.

Found this great report. I'm heading to the Astrodome by Friday, so this was not only intersting, but timely. :hi:

I've got a hundred bucks that says the Texas team goes to the Playoffs

sorry, thought this was the lounge

They play downtown at Minute Maid nee Enron Field.

I know first hand that the Austin Convention Center is going farely well. It is quite possible that its a more manageable crowd here. THe air-conditioning is running well.... Evacuees have city bus passes and lots of food, ministry services, a salon....

FYI, here in Austin one of our group was writing a database program to handle volunteers, unbeknwost to us there was no database of evacuees.... so Microsoft came in and started building an evacuee database... I know the volunteer database program was being expanded to include a city field so as to accomodate San Antonio who wanted to use it. Wonder if it has made its way where its needed... to Houston....

The only appeal I've heard in the last couple of days here in Austin is that they still need women's XL clothes and clean underwear and socks for everyone. I think most everyone has at least been able to get out of their dirty clothes. They're already getting some people placed in apartments.

Initially, when they decided to use the Tony Burger center to house evacuees, they put out an appeal for 100 volunteers to set up the cots, etc. 400 people showed up. Maybe that's just Austin for ya :)

Before Austinites start patting their own backs, they have to remember that there is a difference between providing for 6000 evacuees and providing for 25,000. Plus, Houston's churches and schools have also been turned into make-shift shelters. Many of the people who would be volunteering at the Astrodome were already volunteering at Our Lady of Perpetual Mercy or Second Evangelical Praise Tabernacle or what have you.

I have rellies in the Corpus area who are volunteering--they are also putting in 24 hour days and are short on supplies. I imagine the same is true in San Antonio and Huntsville.

Houston is a much larger city and all things being equal, I would expect a proportionate number of volunteers and donations.

Ultimately, this is still just more evidence of the lack of preparation on the part of all levels of government. Houston is the closest large city to NOLA and evacuating the people who couldn't afford or find hotel rooms should have been anticipated. Actually, I think that Houston did a good job of getting the Astrodome set up, I'm just dismayed that so many people still haven't received the most basic things, like clean clothes.

BTW, I'm originally from Houston.

And many more here.

We were very specifically told during our volunteer orientation at Reliant that we were NOT supposed to take photos of the evacuees.

Imo, I don't see what the problem would be to take a few pictures.

I've seen some people here who seem to be under the incorrect impression that there were not enough people volunteering in Houston. In reality, the opposite is true.

For what it's worth, my wife and I were at Reliant Arena on Sunday working at the message center trying to help people find missing loved ones.

There were tons of people, and the Red Cross and Harris County Citizens Corp were turning people away because too many people were showing up to help. There was an overall lack of organization as some people have noted, but that is due to the sheer scale of the problem. I think most of the accounts I've read are basically in sync with mine on that item. We just showed up and other volunteers who were not with the Red Cross or anything just told us what was going on and we got to work.

Also, there is an overabundance of some items, in particular some articles of clothing, and an extreme shortage of others. For example, there is too much men's underwear, but not enough for women (especially plus sizes). It's pretty difficult to know what to donate from one day to the next because as soon as they say they are short on one thing, everyone donates it and then they have too much.

Another good thing is that the number of people in the large buildings is decreasing. People are either moving in with families, being put into apartments by the state, or going to other shelters that are a little more comfortable. Reliant and the Astrodome are temporary, and hopefully people can all be moved out of those soon and into better locations.

The biggest problem that I see though, which I've seen mentioned, is that there is no real organization in the databases of tracking people. The one we used at Reliant was set up by a local cellphone store, and there were multiple other sites we used as well. Also, it doesn't look like anyone went around tracking the actual people who were in the shelters, so the only way we got people in the database is if they voluntarily filled out a form or came to talk to us. As a result, in the nine hours I was there, I was only able to help two people find their loved ones. I'm glad I could help those people, but you would think that there would be a FEMA database for tracking people or something. I guess you don't get useful things out of FEMA when it's run by a pale copy of the Horse Whisperer.

Overall though, I think the people of Houston have done a great job in trying to help. The true test remains to be seen as we will still need to volunteer and help out as time goes by, but so far we've done good.

Love the horse whisperer thing.