Makes me proud to live here:
HURRICANE KATRINA: THE AFTERMATH
An early thanksgiving in Austin
4,000 Katrina survivors now call city home.
By Jennifer Barrios
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, September 05, 2005
Thanksgiving came early in Austin, as grateful and exhausted evacuees from Hurricane Katrina spent Sunday enjoying hot food, clean blankets and fresh water.
Volunteers continued to converge on the Austin Convention Center on Sunday, as Mayor Will Wynn pledged the city's long-term support of the 4,000 evacuees who have arrived in Austin and praised the community's outpouring of support.
"This is a great day in Austin," Wynn said.
For many, the Austin Convention Center offered a taste of normalcy after the harrowing days in states hit by Hurricane Katrina.
Low cots under subdued lights lined cavernous halls, and large signs pointed evacuees to areas with computers, food, showers and rows of red telephones.
Children tossed footballs between the cots and pushed toy cars through the aisles, while elderly evacuees reclined on beds and sat in wheelchairs.
Many ate plates of rice, chicken and gravy, and cake, while others enjoyed their first showers in days.
"It's been great since we've been here," said Victoria Litt, who spent four days at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans before arriving in Austin on Saturday. "Everyone's been polite, kind and courteous."
Litt and her family were rescued from the roof of her daughter's home after the flood. Sitting on her cot and wrapped in a United Airlines blanket, Litt said she spent her time at the dark and filthy Superdome cowering under a chair, hiding from the gangs of armed marauders who roved the halls.
As two generations of her family slumbered nearby, Litt said she probably would move to Austin permanently.
Her daughter, Diane Hale, agreed: "I'm not going back!"
For some, Sunday was a day of rejoicing.
Joan Hampton arrived at the convention center with only her work uniform and four Bibles in a plastic bag.
"I am so thankful to be in Texas," Hampton said, sitting on her new bed surrounded by chairs that she had arranged into a cubby of personal space. "I am home. I am surrounded by love."
Her house, in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, probably was destroyed in the flood, but Hampton is grateful for what she does have.
"I didn't lose anything. The Lord has blessed me," she said.
Hampton planned to spend the day writing down all she had seen on white notebook paper, which she kept tucked on a pillow next to one of her Bibles.
Austin Energy employees turned the Palmer Events Center into a shelter for people with minor medical problems. Evacuees slept behind high pink curtains as volunteers sorted clothing and tucked cans of soda into coolers.
Robert Mingea, a cardiologist at St. David's Medical Center, said he saw people with a wide range of ailments during his volunteer shift on Sunday morning.
"These were people who weren't healthy to begin with, and now they're even more unhealthy," Mingea said.
Many people's illnesses worsened after they were unable to get medicine for several days after the hurricane, he said.
The center has seen about 500 patients so far, said Jeff Brockman, a nurse and assistant clinical coordinator with Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.
At a news conference Sunday, Mayor Wynn said that the city will be able to keep the evacuee centers open "a very long time."
"It's going to be open as long as it needs to be open," Wynn said. "The real challenge is how do we make sure that is as short as possible, not for our sake, but for the sake of the refugees."
Wynn said that he expected community nonprofits and faith-based groups to step in as days become weeks, while other evacuees are likely to end up with family members and friends.
But for the short term, Austin has no shortage of willing volunteers.
City staff were caught by surprise when the planeloads they thought were landing late Saturday night ended up arriving through the morning.
City Manager Toby Futrell said the city issued an emergency call for 100 volunteers to help set up cots and greet arriving evacuees. Four hundred people showed up asking what they could do to help.
Austinite Penny Smith spent most of her holiday weekend volunteering.
"I was lucky enough to get to greet people as they came in," said Smith, who was serving iced tea and coffee at the convention center. "The volunteers get as much out of this as the people we're helping."
jbarrios@statesman.com; 246-1150