On Monday, Santa Cruz Indymedia reporters Bradley and Vinny returned to the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, which had been a shelter for survivors of Hurricane Katrina, to find that the center was trying to return to its normal business of hosting conventions. Vinny spoke with several people who had been excluded from federal services and are not sure what they are going to do for jobs and housing. Photos and Audio of volunteers and hurricane survivors. Bradley's September 17th Report | Vinny's Audio Report Struggles for Katrina Survivors at George R. Brown Convention Center

Hurricane survivors who have not been housed so far and were living in the Brown Convention Center and the Reliant Arena in Houston are being transferred to Fort Chaffee, a military base in Arkansas Photos and Audio from September 20th Animals that had survived Katrina and were housed in hurricane-vulnerable areas such as Galveston, Texas were being moved this week as people faced mandatory evacuation orders. Another animal rescue contact

On Tuesday, September 20th, state and local officials in the Houston, Texas area ordered the mandatory evacuation of about 4,000 evacuees from shelters, offering them a chance to relocate to Arkansas as Hurricane Rita swirled toward the Texas coast. Read more The Federal Emergency Management Agency said this week that it was working with the Pentagon ahead of time to pre-position supplies. About 14 percent of U.S. oil refining capacity was shut down in mid-week as a precaution before Hurricane Rita strikes on Friday night or Saturday morning. Read more The Hurricane was downgraded on Thursday from a Category 5 to a Category 4 storm. However, thousands of the 1.3 million Texas evacuees have been trapped in a 100-mile traffic jam, with some cars running out of gas, and scant supplies in stores and at gas stations.

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