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Texas Agrees to Take 50,000 More Refugees

Posted on: Friday, 2 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

AUSTIN, Texas -- The state of Texas agreed Thursday to take in three times more refugees from Hurricane Katrina than officials initially expected, bringing the total number of evacuees to nearly 75,000.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced that 50,000 more refugees would relocate to Texas, with plans to house 25,000 each in San Antonio and Dallas. Those people would join 23,000 others who are already being sent from New Orleans to the Astrodome in Houston.

Perry declared an emergency disaster for the state, freeing up money to provide services for hurricane victims.

The hurricane "has created emergency conditions in Texas that will require all available resources of both federal and state governments to overcome," Perry said. "We will do all we can as a state and a people to help our neighbors to the east who have lost so much."

A shelter is being created in San Antonio in a huge warehouse at KellyUSA, a city-owned complex that once was home to an Air Force base. In Dallas, the refugees will go to Reunion Arena, the former home of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.

"Whatever we are called upon to do ... we intend to welcome these people with open arms and to try to give them some dignity which these circumstances have taken away from them," San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger said.

The governor asked the state Department of Housing and Community Affairs to set aside all vacant low-income housing units for refugees. So far 7,000 units have been reserved for hurricane victims.

Texas will also open its schools and hospitals to some of the hurricane's most desperate refugees. The state Health and Human Services Department planned to extend office hours to help people with Medicaid, food stamps and prescription benefits.

"We're getting calls across the country from people who want to help," Perry said. "It's going to be the largest influx of refugees in American history."

The American Red Cross has opened about 20 shelters in other Texas cities. Texas is a relatively close drive for New Orleans evacuees, many of whom escaped the city on Interstate 10 and Interstate 20 before Katrina struck. Tens of thousands of survivors continued to fill hotel rooms across the state days after the storm.

Some hurricane survivors planned to start over in Texas. Many are poor. Some lived on the streets of New Orleans. Others lost homes or their jobs when the hurricane flooded their city.

"I'm not going back. I'm going to rebuild in Dallas," said Thomas Washington, 46, who arrived in a caravan of cars carrying 26 people. The group left New Orleans on Sunday and stayed first in motels. They eventually turned to the evacuee shelter at Reunion Arena in downtown Dallas.

Washington, who worked as a security officer at a Naval facility, said his home near Lake Pontchartrain is gone.

"All I have is a pair of jeans and a shirt," he said.

Perry, who agreed to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's request Wednesday to take in the evacuees, said Texas naturally wants to help its neighbor.

"I think we all understand it's by the grace of God that this terrible tragedy didn't come ashore a few hundred miles west," Perry said.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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