07 September 2005
HISD begins massive enrollment effort (updated)
Today HISD began the tremendous job of enrolling thousands of school-aged children displaced by Katrina:
The massive task of enrolling thousands of displaced children in Houston schools begins in earnest this morning at the Reliant Center and George R. Brown Convention Center.
Many could begin attending class by Thursday.
Houston Independent School District officials estimate they can enroll 500 students a day at each site, giving each a health screening and a wristband indicating their school location and school bus number.
As many as 100 buses could be needed to get the children to and from school each day.
The cost could reach $60 million if an estimated 10,000 students from Louisiana and Mississippi spend the entire school year in Houston, Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said Tuesday. HISD hopes to recoup the cost from the state and federal governments, he said.
"We're going to treat them like they're our own kids," Saavedra told school board trustees Tuesday. "But there is a serious issue of cost to this effort."
[snip]
HISD will open two previously closed elementary school campuses — Ryan and Douglass — for up to 1,350 students.
The rest will be spread among Dodson, McDade, Frost and Anson Jones elementaries. The first group of middle school students will go to Fleming and Black, with Fondren and Holland as backups.
High school students will go to Jones and Scarborough, followed by Kashmere, Barbara Jordan and Sterling as space is needed.
The district has hired 300 to 400 teachers on a temporary basis, and they're ready to start Thursday, Saavedra said.
The new teachers include many from New Orleans, Texas retirees, Teach for America teachers previously assigned to New Orleans and others, Saavedra said.
Also, HISD will be hosting a job fair on Thursday for educators displaced by Katrina.
UPDATE (9-8-2005) Jennifer Radcliffe has a recap of yesterday's registration efforts. She notes that HISD registered another 445 students yesterday, bringing HISD's total number of new students to 1,885. Radcliffe also provides some numbers for other local districts:
Suburban districts in Harris County have taken in roughly 6,900 evacuated students, including 1,148 in Cypress-Fairbanks, 811 in Alief, 404 in Klein and 900 in Katy.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/07/05 12:48 PM |
KTRK's Abrahams calls out NY Times
KTRK-13's Tom Abrahams engages in a bit of media criticism related to recent coverage of Houston's Katrina efforts by New York Times outlets:
Houston is home to the largest relief shelter in American history. From donating shelter, clothes, and food to making room in its schools, the city and its people have given of themselves.
So who could find anything bad to say about Houston? Apparently the New York Times could, which on Tuesday printed an article about Houston's response to Katrina in two different newspapers. In one, the article seems relatively even handed. But in the other, some say it is overly critical, ill-timed, and in poor taste.
In the Times, there's an above-the-fold article by Houston-based reporter Simon Romero. And apparently what's in the Times is not all the news that's fit to print.
In The International Herald Tribune published by the Times in Paris, Romero's article is on page 15 and it begins with a line not in the Times, which reads "No one would accuse this city of being timid in the scramble to profit from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."
It later contends, "A surge of business activity in Houston might lift the fortune of a city that is still struggling to recover from the collapse of Enron and two decades of job cuts in the energy industry."
As noted here, the New York Times did try to slant their story to portray Houston as crudely opportunistic, but they had to report enough facts that they probably only hurt themselves journalistically by trying to slant the story the way they did. The IHT editing was apparently worse.
Kudos to Abrahams and KTRK for calling them on it.
To echo Laurence Simon -- If you're getting your Houston-related coverage from the New York Times, Washington Post, or national bloggers who refuse to link to some of the fine local resources Laurence links at the top of his blog, you're almost certainly missing parts of the story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/07/05 11:37 AM |
Chron doing its part to help Katrina evacuees
This is an interesting look at how the (often criticized by us) Houston Chronicle is meeting the needs of Houston's many new residents:
As the population of Houston swells -- it's estimated the city has seen an influx of about 100,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina -- the city's main newspaper has been ramping up to meet the needs of people looking for news and, now, for jobs. It just added a new classified category for people looking for temporary work.
The Hearst-owned Houston Chronicle has been distributing 10,000 “mini newspapers" to 25 Houston-area shelters including the Astrodome. “It's a broadsheet,” said Bill Offill, executive vice president sales and marketing at the Chronicle. "Just above our masthead it says, 'News for Katrina Evacuees.'"
Wednesday's edition will grow from six to eight pages and includes information on how evacuees can locate others, find health assistance, and just “what the heck is going on,” Offill said. Seven thousand copies of the main Chronicle are distributed along with the special editions.
It's unknown how long the Chronicle will hand out the hurricane-related publication. Today the main paper ran a story showing that many exhausted evacuees are hesitant to move to other shelters -- including docked cruise ships -- so soon after landing in Houston. Many are still trying to locate family and friends. “We're not sure how long people are going to be in these mega-shelters,” Offill said.
Beyond providing short-term quarters, Houston will absorb residents looking for either temporary or permanent residence. Offill said the Chronicle, which has a daily circulation of 527,744, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures, can easily produce another 50,000 to 100,000 copies to accommodate new readers.
Already the Chronicle has had to make adjustments. This weekend, the paper produced a new classified category to fill the number of orders for companies looking for temporary workers. “On Thursday we were getting so many calls, we created a new classification,” said Offill, who added that Labor Day weekend is typically slow for help-wanted advertising. This year it doubled.
Additionally, the paper is picking up display advertising from companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil, which are encouraging displaced employees to contact them.
“It's day to day,” said Offill. “We don't know how long we're going to have the influx of people. You hear reports that it could be for a long time. We're already seeing a lot of people that are going to make Houston their permanent home and they are not going back."
(I'll be nice and not make the obvious comment regarding the bolded part above.)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/07/05 09:59 AM |
06 September 2005
City Council approves disaster relief funds
Charles Kuffner points to this Matt Stiles story noting that city council has approved $10 million for disaster-relief efforts:
The money, which would come from a street and bridge construction fund, might be used to pay for the personnel, equipment and supplies to help the tens of thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Mayor Bill White said that the city has spent less than $1 million so far on ramping up shelters and other services for evacuees. He said he'd also secured millions of dollars in funding pledges from private sources.
"If something happens, we need to be able to act quickly," he said.
Council members at the mayor said they also expected that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would reimburse the city for most, if not all, of any spending on the evacuees.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/06/05 07:38 AM |
05 September 2005
KHOU Interviews HISD bus drivers
I was hoping for this! KHOU-11 has interviewed several of the HISD bus drivers who have returned from helping evacuate residents of New Orleans. Click on the two video links to hear their tales.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/05/05 12:56 PM |
Important transit lessons from New Orleans disaster
Tom Kirkendall has linked to an important piece that should be mandatory reading for City of Houston and Metro officials:
Those who fervently wish for car-free cities should take a closer look at New Orleans. The tragedy of New Orleans isn't primarily due to racism or government incompetence, though both played a role. The real cause is automobility -- or more precisely to the lack of it.
[snip]
What made New Orleans more vulnerable to catastrophe than most U.S. cities is its low rate of auto ownership. According to the 2000 Census, nearly a third of New Orleans households do not own an automobile. This compares to less than 10 percent nationwide. There are significant differences by race: 35 percent of black households but only 15 percent of white households do not own an auto. But in the end, it was auto ownership, not race, that made the difference between safety and disaster.
"The evacuation plan was really based on people driving out," an LSU professor told the Times. On Saturday and Sunday, August 27 and 28, when it appeared likely that Hurricane Katrina would strike New Orleans, those people who could simply got in their cars and drove away. The people who didn't have cars were left behind.
Critics of autos love the term "auto dependent." But Katrina proved that the automobile is a liberator. It is those who don't own autos who are dependent -- dependent on the competence of government officials, dependent on charity, dependent on complex and sometimes uncaring institutions.
[snip]
Rather than help low-income people achieve greater mobility, New Orleans transportation planners decided years ago that their highest priority was to provide heavily subsidized streetcar rides for tourists. In the late 1980s and 1990s, New Orleans spent at least $15 million converting an abandoned rail line into the 1.5-mile Riverfront Streetcar line. In 2004, New Orleans opened the 3.6-mile Canal Street streetcar line at a cost of nearly $150 million.
New Orleans was planning to spend another $120 million on a Desire Street streetcar line.These tourist lines do nothing to help any local residents except for those who happen to own property along the line.
Sounds very familiar. Tom adds:
If a part of Metro's long-term strategy is to make certain segments of Houston's population less "automobile-dependent," then one of the lessons of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina is that we should make clear in any future Metro referendums that such a strategy can have deadly consequences in the event that an evacuation of Houston is required.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/05/05 11:27 AM |
Labor Day reading
-- Tom Kirkendall writes about the massive relief effort going on behind-the-scenes by a network of local churches and charities. My own church is one of those listed and its efforts to help are extensive. Fellowship of the Woodlands has adopted evacuees at The Woodlands Marriott and is providing for their needs, in addition to hosting a shelter at the church, holding a fundraising concert with Phillips, Craig and Dean this Wednesday, putting on a "Fun Day" for evacuee families in the area and an appearance by Rick Warren today, sending out mobile kitchens to the Gulf Coast areas hit by Katrina, collecting donated items for evacuees, providing childcare for local medical personnel who are working extra shifts, and more.
-- Charles Kuffner has a volunteer and assistance post that is packed with information.
-- Banjo Jones has a third installment of what is becoming a series, "The Kindness of Strangers."
-- Slampo's daughter welcomed a new student to her class this week and that has Slampo thinking about the future for evacuees and Houston.
-- Galveston, Cedar Park and Texas City police officers are taking supplies to police departments in the hurricane-devastated areas.
-- The Houston Humane Society is providing shelter and care for evacuees' pets at no charge and is asking for donations to help offset the costs this will involve.
-- Brennan's of Houston will be fundraising on Friday, September 9. All monies will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Disaster Relief Fund.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/05/05 09:34 AM |
04 September 2005
Katrina news bites: medication, transportation for evacuees
-- Mayor White has announced that evacuees will be able to get medication, both prescription and non-prescription, free of charge for up to 30 days. Also, people who do not have a doctor's prescription will be able to get their medication based on a pharmacist's judgment.
-- Houston Airport System is assisting New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong Airport in cleaning up and restoring air service.
-- Here's a list of transit services Metro is providing for evacuees:
* Ongoing: providing bus shuttles for patients from New Orleans Veterans Administration Hospital from Ellington Field to the Houston VA Hospital. Transportation is also being provided for handicapped and/or wheelchair-bound patients arriving at Ellington.
* Thursday, Sept. 1: provided transport for passengers arriving on six flights from New Orleans to Ellington, 138 people per plane. They were transported to the Astrodome, Galveston and area hospitals.
* Ongoing: providing two trolleys running a loop from the Astrodome along Kirby, Fannin, Main and OST, every 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., taking refugees to METRORail, area stores and a medical clinic.
* Ongoing: providing four METROLift vans to shuttle people from the Astrodome to a medical clinic in the area, in conjunction with Harris County Precincts 1 and 2.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/04/05 07:12 PM |
HISD buses help with New Orleans evacuation
This is an incredible story from HISD:
HISD school buses rolled through the waterlogged streets of New Orleans on Sunday morning September 4, rescuing hundreds who have endured the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. Many of those rescued were wheelchair-bound residents who had been trapped by the high water.
More than 300 Houston Independent School District bus drivers, police, and support personnel volunteered to give up their Labor Day weekend to go to the New Orleans area to help in the rescue effort. Departing from Houston between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Saturday, they drove 142 HISD school buses to New Orleans overnight after an emergency appeal from Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
HISD Police who accompanied the school buses to provide security reported that scores of people were rescued who were still trying to get out of their neighborhoods in and around New Orleans. The buses arrived in New Orleans at approximately 5:00 a.m.
“We’re incredibly proud of our school-bus drivers and our police officers who volunteered to go into that devastated area to help,” said HISD Superintendent of Schools Abelardo Saavedra, who gave Saturday night’s order to send the buses with the volunteer drivers. “These wonderful people didn’t hesitate for a moment to give up their Labor Day weekend because they wanted to do something to help the victims. God bless them for what they have done.”
By 9:00 p.m. Saturday, 142 buses had rolled from all four HISD bus terminals and were on their way to Louisiana, accompanied by HISD Police cars, bus-repair trucks and mechanics, and fuel procurement officials.
HISD’s General Manager of Transportation Services Bonnie Russell said the school district decided to send a number of buses with wheelchair lifts because of news reports from the New Orleans area showing many wheelchair-bound individuals struggling to board regular buses. District officials reported Sunday morning that several buses, filled with wheelchair-bound survivors, were on their way to safety.
Russell reported that one large group of HISD buses was at a docks facility in New Orleans loading survivors from boats and taking them to the New Orleans airport to be flown out of the area.
It is estimated that the HISD school buses will evacuate more than 6,400 hurricane survivors. Each bus will carry about 48 individuals to places to be determined.
Wow. Bravo to HISD and its wonderful employees.
UPDATE: HISD has added an update with this information:
The HISD buses also were used to take military troops from a nearby airfield into five parishes in the New Orleans area.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/04/05 04:38 PM |
77230 -- Astrodome's new zip code
KHOU-11 has the details of how Katrina evacuees can get their mail:
New Orleans mail has been diverted to Houston, and evacuees nationwide can restart mail service from the post office nearest where they are staying, the U.S. Postal Service said Friday.
People can resume their mail service by filling out a change-of-address form at a nearby post office, said Cliff Rucker, Houston district manager for the Postal Service.
"This is not just for evacuees in Houston. I want to emphasize that this is for evacuees nationwide," Rucker said.
This will benefit the evacuees in receiving checks and those who need to order prescriptions by mail.
He said that mail is being held in trailers and vans in Houston, and the post office will distribute mail as it receives new information on addressees.
In addition, a general-delivery ZIP code -- 77230 -- has been set up for the more than 11,000 evacuees at the Astrodome.
Astrodome evacuees will get mail that has their name, a "general delivery" designation and the special ZIP code. Those staying in other shelters can have mail forwarded to the shelter, Rucker said.
Officials said they would prefer for recipients to have identification, and they are working on creating some form of ID for evacuees who don't have it.
Officials said evacuees can call 800-ASK-USPS (275-8777) for assistance.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/04/05 04:10 PM |
RV's for evacuees
Banjo Jones has a post up about an idea Scott Chaffin has:
Scott Chaffin, who writes The Fat Guy blog up in the D-FW area of the Great State of Texas, is wondering if there are any R.V. owners out there who would lend their rig to be used by folks displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Scott owns an RV park on the Brazos River 90 miles southwest of Dallas.
"Problem is, I ain't gots no RVs. That's where you come in. Being Texans, you probably know some
hayseed (maybe family, maybe not) who owns an RV that will be parked for the next few months as we slip into fall and winter. I'm looking for donations of those idle RVs for temporary housing at my place," he says in an email sent to his blogrollin' buddies."I'm also working with a couple of other folks around the nation to pull together a national dealio of this sort. National attention to this very easy and cheap method of semi-permanent housing will be
important in the long run, I think. But, there's no reason not to start here at home, and learn from it," he adds.
Follow this link if you can help.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/04/05 06:35 AM |
03 September 2005
Councilman Garcia organizes luncheon for evacuees
Councilman Adrian Garcia is hosting a BBQ lunch on Monday for evacuees:
On Monday, Council Member Adrian Garcia will host a Bar-B-Que lunch for those who have been displaced due to Hurricane Katrina.
Where: Bella Vista Church, 807 E. 36th Street, Houston, TX 77022
When: Lunch will be served at 1 p.m.
Follow the link for more information, and thanks to Russell Holliman for the information.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/03/05 08:33 PM |
The calm that is Houston
Tom Kirkendall, who has shared his keen insight with us on all things related to Hurricane Katrina, has a terrific post up about how Houston is turning out to be a very calming influence in the midst of tremendous chaos and uncertainty:
As bad as this disaster has been, it is difficult to imagine how bad it would have been had Houston's amazing facilities not been available as a transition point for the Gulf Coast region evacuees. Reliant Park is a massive facility that can accomodate huge numbers of people, and it is located near one of the world's finest medical centers, Houston's Texas Medical Center. As large as the loss of life has been in the Gulf Coast region to date, it would have been far larger had not Houston's amazing facilities not been available to accomodate the stream of evacuees.
Within Reliant Park, the Astrodome is filled with approximately 15,000 people, while officials have opened up the the adjacent Reliant Arena and the Reliant Park Convention Center to accomodate another 15,000 evacuees. On Friday, city officials also opened the massive George R. Brown Convention Center near downtown Houston, which was filled with air mattresses donated by a local sporting goods retailer. As many as 7,000 people could be staying there as of today.
The flow of buses to Houston continued unabated as conditions in Louisiana have worsened. Rather than turn evacuees away, Houston has simply opened up more of its resources to attempt to accomodate them all, and without much assistance from officials who coordinating the exodus from New Orleans. Texas officials have not been able to coordinate the departures or destinations of the buses with Louisiana counterparts and, at this point, Texas officials have no control over what happens with regard to the exodus from New Orleans.
Be sure to read the entire post. In another post, Tom notes that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will be relocating to Houston temporarily.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: A few days ago, Chris Elam pointed to an article by Thomas Lifson in the American Thinker that generated some controversy in Elam's comments from the usual argumentative quarter. Regardless, it struck me that the author's observations about Houston were spot on:
Many years ago, an oilman in Houston pointed out to me that there was no inherent reason Houston should have emerged as the world capital of the petroleum business. New Orleans was already a major city with centuries of history, proximity to oil deposits, and huge transportation advantages when the Houston Ship Channel was dredged, making the then-small city of Houston into a major port. The discovery of the Humble oil field certainly helped Houston rise as an oil center, but the industry could just as easily have centered itself in New Orleans.
When I pressed my oilman informant for the reason Houston prevailed, he gave me a look of pity for my naiveté, and said, “Corruption.” Anyone making a fortune in New Orleans based on access to any kind of public resources would find himself coping with all sorts of hands extended for palm-greasing. Permits, taxes, fees, and outright bribes would be a never-ending nightmare. Houston, in contrast, was interested in growth, jobs, prosperity, and extending a welcoming hand to newcomers. New Orleans might be a great place to spend a pleasant weekend, but Houston is the place to build a business.
Today, metropolitan Houston houses roughly 4 times the population of pre-Katrina metropolitan New Orleans, despite the considerable advantage New Orleans has of capturing the shipping traffic of the Mississippi basin.
It is far from a coincidence that Houston is now absorbing refugees from New Orleans, and preparing to enroll the children of New Orleans in its own school system. Houston is a city built on the can-do spirit (space exploration, oil, medicine are shining examples of the human will to knowledge and improvement, and all have been immeasurably advanced by Houstonians). Houston officials have capably planned for their own possible severe hurricanes, and that disaster planning is now selflessly put at the disposal of their neighbors to the east.
That's the Houston I'm proud to call home. The fact that this city has managed to set up what amounts to a second city with hardly any advance warning, and to have done so as well (despite a few hiccups along the way) illustrates the fact that this city just manages to get things done.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/03/05 03:34 PM |
02 September 2005
Ward on the warpath, part two?
KTRK-13's Dave Ward just threw coverage out to Gene Apodaca at the Astrodome, who said he had secured permission from the Red Cross to report from inside the stadium.
As he was trying to report, hands kept going over the camera. Apodaca announced that sheriff's deputies were blocking the camera, despite his having secured permission for the broadcast.
An annoyed Dave Ward told him to get the officer's name and badge number.
Last night, Ward's criticism and KTRK's reporting seemed to motivate public officials to straighten out a developing mess at the Astrodome. Local officials shouldn't underestimate the power of Dave Ward on the warpath!
UPDATE: Apodaca is back on the air, and the law-enforcement busybodies seem to have found something else to do. They should not have underestimated the power of Dave Ward!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/05 10:53 PM |
Give readers the whole story before editorializing
The Chronicle editorial board wrote the following today:
No good disaster plot is complete without a triumph of individual initiative over unfeeling bureaucracy, and this one's no exception. At the gates to the Astrodome, Red Cross officials initially tried to turn away the bus because it was not part of the officially sanctioned evacuation of the New Orleans Superdome. Earlier, that rationale had led authorities to refuse to help a young mother with five children and a 95-year-old woman passenger in the car when they sought entrance to the relief center.
Luckily, someone with a heart eventually got involved. After a half-hour delay, Jabbar and his plucky band were granted sanctuary inside the Dome.
Chronicle metro/state editorialist Rick Casey sounded a similar theme:
When he arrived at the Astrodome about 10 p.m. Wednesday, 20-year-old Jabbar Gibson modestly confessed that he had commandeered a school bus in New Orleans, then picked up about 70 passengers before heading out for the 13-hour trek to Houston.
[snip]
When they arrived at the Astrodome, Gibson and his passengers raised another moral question. Should they be let in?
It was reminiscent of the Cold War debates over whether a family with a backyard bomb shelter should, in a nuclear attack, let neighbors in knowing that the food and water supply wouldn't support them all.
Officials believe the practical limit for shelter in the Astrodome is 25,000, and they had made a commitment to house refugees from the Superdome who could reach that number.
At first, unidentified officials told the bus refugees no. But about half an hour later, Red Cross officials who are running the shelter operation let them in to sleep on the former playing field, where the Oilers once slept.
Earlier, however, a desperate woman driving a van filled with five children and a crated dog was turned away. A dramatic photo on the Chronicle's front page yesterday led to phone calls to the newspaper, volunteering shelter.
Certainly, some mistakes have been made, but for the most part, the operation has gone pretty smoothly considering the sheer logistical problem and hardly any advance warning that Houston would be hosting thousands of refugees.
One point is worth clarifying, however. According to a media personality present at the Astrodome for the Red Cross press briefings Thursday, the Red Cross fairly quickly came to the conclusion that they would not refuse service to refugees in need, whether they were on the "official" caravan or not, although they would try to redirect the "unofficial" refugees to other existing shelters. Furthermore, according to our correspondent, the Red Cross announced as much to the press at the Astrodome, although they did ask the media not to publicize the fact since the Red Cross feared an announcement might lead to more "unofficial" refugees than could be handled.
Perhaps it's debatable whether the Red Cross made the right call in asking the press to keep quiet about the policy, but the decision was made under pressure and had a certain logic. In any case, media outlets that were informed of the unofficial policy ought to report the entire story before simply accusing Red Cross officials of being heartless and unfeeling.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/05 10:47 PM |
Judge Eckels: Evacuees are not being turned away
From Harris County Judge Robert Eckels:
The Astrodome site is not turning away evacuees. The gates are open. When a bus arrives, medical personnel board the bus and determine the medical needs of the persons on board. They are then unloaded and given food and water.
We currently have approximately 18,000 evacuees on site- 15,000 in the Astrodome and 3,000 in the Reliant Arena. The Reliant Arena is a temporary shelter, a transitional site. Its purpose is to assess the medical needs of the evacuees and provide food and water. They will be sent to another shelter as soon as the location of the shelter has been determined.
Reliant Center is now being used as a shelter. Reliant Center can hold approximately 11,000 people. The George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston will open as a shelter in the immediate future.
Reliant Stadium is not being used as a shelter. The Houston Texans will play football in Reliant Stadium unaffected by the operations in the Astrodome, Reliant Center, and Reliant Arena.
Dallas and San Antonio shelters are open. Dallas can accommodate 12,500 in several shelters set up in the city. San Antonio can accommodate 25,000 evacuees in several shelters set up in the city.
The Houston area does not expect large numbers of evacuees to continue to flood the area. The Unified Command is currently developing plans to process the evacuees and determine their final destination.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/02/05 01:23 PM |
Displaced children enroll in area schools
Jennifer Radcliffe has an excellent story detailing how local schools are helping meet the needs of refugee children:
Louisiana residents who escaped Hurricane Katrina said they're thankful schools are welcoming the children.
"While they're learning, it's kind of keeping their mind off the tragedy," said Kathleen Sutton, who enrolled her son Matthew, 11, in Galena Park's Cobb Sixth Grade Campus. "Being around other children will give him some kind of happiness."
The Houston Independent School District enrolled 166 evacuee students Wednesday. Katy enrolled nearly 300 students this week. The Fort Bend school district admitted 54 students, and the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District had 16. Figures for other area districts weren't yet available.
The numbers are expected to jump significantly next week, as families get established in Houston and after the Labor Day holiday Monday.
"We've had 200 calls on our hot line just this morning," HISD spokeswoman Adriana Villarreal said.
Will Rogers Elementary School enrolled 10 children Thursday, and Principal Ron Dominy said he has space for dozens more.
[snip]
Families quietly sorted through racks of khaki and navy pants and shirts. Basic school supplies, such as pencils and notebook paper, were also provided.
"You're a godsend," Danny Dinh, 21, told a volunteer.
Dinh picked up clothes for his 9-year-old sister, who started school in Alief on Thursday.
Their mother is still driving to Houston, and their father hasn't been heard from since Monday, when he was repairing the roof of his east New Orleans home.
Here is HISD's "How to Help" webpage.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/02/05 08:58 AM |
Can Houston handle it?
The Chronicle has finally discovered Laurence Simon -- he's quoted in this story about Houstonians who are wary of the mass of humanity Houston is taking in:
Amid the overwhelmingly compassionate response to hurricane evacuees in Houston, a less-welcoming undercurrent is developing among people worried about the impact of thousands of needy, desperate people.
[snip]
Laurence Simon, a tech support employee for a local company, has mixed feelings.
"I'm glad that we're putting out a welcome mat. These people have to go somewhere. But I don't know if officials are appreciating the extent of what it's going to take," said Simon.
"You can hold the door open on the elevator for more and more people but, at some point, the elevator gets too full and the cable snaps."
For what it's worth (probably not much), my own thoughts are that local charities, churches, businesses and school districts will do an admirable job of tending to the needs of the thousands of displaced residents. Most of the problems we'll see will require law enforcement solutions and the big question is whether or not HPD, Metro PD and the Harris County Sheriff's department are up to the task. We'll soon find out.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/02/05 08:11 AM |
LST reporting from the Dome
David Benzion, Rob Booth, Matt Bramanti and Matt Forge (from Lone Star Times) have done some amazing reporting from the Astrodome. Just keep on scrolling, and don't miss the pictures.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/02/05 07:53 AM |
Fire marshal closes Astrodome?
KTRK-13 news has been live since about 11:00 pm at the Astrodome.
KTRK is reporting that the City of Houston fire marshall has closed the Astrodome to further evacuees. Many buses are still waiting.
KTRK reports that the fire marshal will not have a comment until 10:00 am. Dave Ward has been highly critical of the confusion.
There seems to be no comment either from Mayor White, who announced on KSEV-700 this afternoon that he had to end an interview so he could go watch his son's football game. This was in the 4:00 hour.
Kudos to KTRK for reporting on this story live tonight. KPRC-2 has belatedly begun reporting, but KTRK has owned tonight's unfortunate story.
UPDATE: KTRK's Mark Garay is now reporting that some buses are now being allowed into the Astrodome area.
UPDATE 2: Now an HPD sergeant is reporting that EVERY bus in the vicinity will be processed and allowed into the Astrodome.
It's starting to appear that nobody knows what is going on.
Actually, on second thought, it strikes me that the fact KTRK was on site and Dave Ward was so critical of the confusion may actually have gotten things moving. Again, kudos to KTRK for their work on the story.
UPDATE 3: Dave Ward just called the decision "a stunning reversal" and said "apparently they just booted the fire marshal out of the place!" Ward approves.
UPDATE 4: Here's a Chronicle story from a bit earlier, explaining the now-reversed decision to close the Astrodome:
Officials closed the Reliant Astrodome to further New Orleans evacuees late Thursday, shortly before five more busloads arrived.
Although the passengers initially were told they would have to reboard the buses and go to Huntsville, officials relented and allowed at least one busload of 67 passengers to stay. The fate of the other four buses was still being considered late Thursday.
Houston Police Sgt. Nate McDuell said the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office ordered that no more evacuees be accepted.
"We're at capacity and buses are being diverted to other cities and other shelters," McDuell said.
Thank goodness common sense and Dave Ward prevailed over a bureaucrat. This was a potential fiasco.
Incidentally, there were MANY more than five buses waiting, as the KTRK coverage made clear. The Chronicle needs to be more careful in reporting numbers.
UPDATE 5 (12:43 am): KTRK reports that 108 buses are waiting, as counted by the KTRK helicopter crew. That's 103 more buses than reported by the Chronicle.
UPDATE 6 (12:57 am): The Mayor's spokesman Pat Trahan has been dispatched to conduct damage control with KTRK's Mark Garay at the Astrodome. Trahan just mentioned the "five buses" number, which the Chronicle story picked up uncritically earlier. Isn't that interesting? Trahan says the Reliant Center is being opened to accommodate the latest evacuees.
UPDATE 7 (1:09 am): Dave Ward seems satisfied things are finally under control, and KTRK has wrapped up its coverage.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/05 12:19 AM |
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