Audio And Video From New Orleans Survivors In Houston

The city of Houston, Texas, opened the Astrodome a week ago to victims of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. By Thursday evening, the Astrodome was filled to capacity with more than 11,000 refugees, most of whom had been transferred from New Orleans’s Superdome, which many described as a concentration camp where they experienced inhumane and intolerable conditions.

The Reliant Center, adjacent to the Astrodome, was opened on Friday to an additional 11,000 refugees. Both the Astrodome and the Reliant Center are part of the Reliant Park compound of sports arenas and stadiums, which also includes Reliant Stadium and Reliant Arena.

Neither Reliant Stadium, where the Houston Texans of the National Football League play, nor Minute Maid Park, a large stadium in the city’s downtown and home of the Houston Astros baseball team, will be open to refugees. Both have retractable roofs and could house tens of thousands more refugees, but the city refuses to consider forcing for-profit sports franchises to find other accommodations so that it could be more responsive to the plight of the hurricane victims and house more of them. Reliant Arena, meanwhile, is being used as a processing and medical evaluation facility for the refugees before they move into the Astrodome or the Reliant Center.

Houston police and Harrison County sheriff’s deputies control traffic around Reliant Park. All weekend long, a steady stream of cars poured into a vast parking lot reserved for volunteers. Other large parking lots were filling with the cars of people arriving in search of family and friends. All Astrodome and Reliant Center “guests,” meanwhile, wear pink wrist bands identifying them as refugees, which allows them access to the sprawling compound.

Outside Reliant Park last Sunday, hundreds of individuals and families who survived the hurricane and its aftermath sat in the shade under trees or walked about exploring their new surroundings. Many refugees walked to the Astrodome Shopping Center across Kirby Drive from the Reliant Park complex to purchase shirts, shoes, and other items with what little cash they had. Volunteers, meanwhile, pulled up in a van and passed out T-shirts and other items of clothing.

Gary Johnson, 41, was in a line that formed outside the shopping center’s Payless shoe store with friend Earl Acklin, 35, and Earl’s daughter, Kendriana Clark, age 7. The store, clearly overwhelmed with new customers, had a sign on the door that limited patronage to just 10 customers at a time.

Read More (with photos)
http://wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/hous-s07.shtml