CNN just reported that the Astrodome is sending away buses

[artist]

to be honest I could not tell you for certain _ i just heard on here they were. said they heard it on CNN.

[MBismyPlayground]

Also, just a comment, 4,000 or even 10,000 is NO WHERE near 25,000 people...........What is going on??

[Ground_Zero_92]

if some are truly tearing up the place already - then what is going to happen? I would think not many would want to deal with this. It makes me sick what a few can do to ruin things for everyone else.

Were the doors closed due to it being more packed in then what they realized it would be or because people are tearing it up????
Have not heard anything about people tearing it up.......

CNN had a Houston Police Officer come on and he stated that the Fire Marshal stated that the Astrodome had reached capacity. That's all I know.

[blueeyes_austin]

Can this be true????

I wonder if it was the non-Superdome people let in earlier....

[CronkPSU]

low end estimate is 4K

CNN said 8K but said that may be optimistic

high end said 10K


add them all up and hell you still don't get 25K...like someone else in this htread said, how in the world don't you know this before you say you can take 25,000 folk...yet another false ray of hope for these poor people

[artist]

makes you wonder. it really makes me sick - an impossible situation just got worse if this is all true.

[gatorbabe79]

We must look like the most inept disorganized group to the rest of the world. I love my country but am embarrassed. I attended 2 olympics out of the US and can only say that other countries seem more serious and disciplined when it comes to crowd control and mass transit. The terrorists are having a field day watching this. I hope the looting didn't include the hosptal's nuclear med substances.

[Ground_Zero_92]

Also, just a comment, 4,000 or even 10,000 is NO WHERE near 25,000 people...........What is going on??

I wish I knew. This is just horrible for the people on those buses. Can you imagine going thought what they have gone through. Then finally geting on a bus out of NO. Only to be turned away after traveling over 300 miles. This is so sad.

[RichG]

Gator babe. They have 10 years to plan an olympics. Houston has had 24 hours!!!!!!

[CronkPSU]

Stadium calls halt to taking refugees
By BILL MURPHY and LEIGH HOPPER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

HURRICANE KATRINA
NOAA
Hurricane Katrina swirls toward the Gulf Coast.

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.

Tired, distraught passengers got off the buses and shouted angrily as police officers told them they could not stay.

"We've got sick people in here and this is how you treat us!" one man shouted. "Welcome to Houston! I hope a hurricane comes to Houston!"

Passengers, some carrying babies, complained that they had made the long ride in unair-conditioned buses and were exhausted. One elderly man was placed in an ambulance and taken to a triage site.

"This is just one of those things," said Red Cross spokeswoman Dana Allen. "We're doing the best we can."

The Dome was closed as its population of refugees from New Orleans swelled to 11,375, said Andrew Biar, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He said the decision was made "for the safety and comfort of the people who are now in the Astrodome."

Officials said chaotic conditions in New Orleans delayed transport of hurricane victims who have spent days in the Superdome there, with no electric power and few necessities.

Some of the first 2,000 evacuees who reached the Astrodome late Wednesday and early Thursday weren't from the Superdome, and county officials backtracked from their earlier announcement that only Superdome evacuees would be admitted.

Most of the new arrivals late Thursday were those who had boarded buses at or near the Superdome, said Liese Hutchinson, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross, which is handling some operations at the shelter under county supervision.

FEMA will reimburse the local expenses, officials said.

The Astrodome was not open to refugees who came to Houston before or shortly after Katrina made landfall.

Without such a policy, there would have been no space for evacuees fleeing the worsening conditions in New Orleans, said O'Brien-Molina.

Three hundred evacuees to be housed at the Dome were coming on two flights from Louisiana. Another 1,900 were to take an Amtrak train to Lafayette, La., and then board buses for Houston, said Rita Obey, spokeswoman for the county Public Health and Environmental Services Department.

But most made the whole trip in chartered and school buses. Late in the afternoon, tired, sad-looking riders filled four yellow West Baton Rouge Parish school buses that pulled up to the Dome.

Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said his department was watching for a few New Orleans municipal jail inmates who may have found their way into the Superdome evacuation. They were brought to the Superdome as conditions worsened at the city jail but could not be accounted for later.

Thomas said the inmates were only minor offenders.

The relief effort at the Dome remained a work in progress.

A 100,000-square-foot medical clinic set up in the Astroarena was nearly overwhelmed on its first day.

The clinic, which is seeking more volunteer doctors and nurses, saw 400 patients by

5 p.m. Nearly 50 people were sent to emergency rooms.

Aramark, the concessionaire at Reliant Park, is feeding evacuees from buffet tables on a concourse.

But not all was calm. One man was arrested after fighting over a cot. Two others were arrested after peeping into a women's shower. Two of the four locker rooms at the Dome are for women, two for men.

State and local education officials were making plans to hold classes for evacuee children at the Dome or bus them to schools, Eckels said.

Chronicle reporters Salatheia Bryant and Anne Marie Kilday contributed to this report.

bill.murphy@chron.com leigh.hopper@chron.com

[Brent]

The terrorists are having a field day watching this. I hope the looting didn't include the hosptal's nuclear med substances.

I was thinking about this late last night... this would be the perfect time for a terrorist to strike in New York or Chicago or LA. All the resources are deployed elsewhere.

[HouTXmetro]

Guys I'm running out of words to decribe this fiasco. New Orleans needs America and the Goverment is failing in every way imaginable. Families are being sent to seperate cities. People are dying because help can't come fast enough. I don't know what to say.

[Houstonia]

I just posted this on another thread. They have shut it down! I heard helicopters flying that direction, several of them, and wondered what was going on -- then we had a breaking news report ...

~~~~~~
BREAKING NEWS: No more people can be accepted in the Astrodome. No one knows how many people are in there--the Red Cross lost count. Our City Fire Marshall's office has said it's overcrowded. One news report earlier tonight said that 4000 are in there--but a doctor on the inside said there are 10,000. Oh, no! And several DOZEN more busloads have arrived and are not being allowed to unload. Oh no.
~~~~~~

I wonder if they saw what I saw. I was watching the 10 pm news on KTRK and they had some shots taken inside the Astrodome. I thought to myself, 'that place looks plenty full already - I wonder where they're going to fit everyone...'

It looked like almost every cot was filled. There was NO room down on the field for more people. I just figured they were going to fill up the hallways on the various levels.

But for safety reasons, I can see why they might want to lock the upper levels off. Evidently, in the Superdome, some major bad things were going on in the upper levels...

[artist]

All I can do is cry for those people right now. i can't even imagine how they must feel.

[CronkPSU]

wait a second....the astrodome holds like 75,000 for a football game, why in the world would they be over the fire code???

[TexasSam]

Now the Astrodome is open again...

[CronkPSU]

the word cluster%^#@ is being redefined minute by minute

[TexasSam]

108 busses in line to unload at the Houston Astrodome.
... and yes they are now letting the people in.

[Houstonia]

108 busses in line to unload at the Houston Astrodome.
... and yes they are now letting the people in.

Sounds like they are going to open part of Reliant to supplement the Astrodome.

[janswizard]

Not too long ago, we read about all these military base closures. Seems to me that these places already have housing and basic services in place - why not open the doors to one of these bases and let these people live there? It's been years since I was on a military base but I can remember housing, commissaries, churches, bowling alleys, etc.