Evacuees find refuge in Houston stadium

HOUSTON -- Ervin Doyle waited three days to get out of New Orleans and then spent 10 hours with his two small sons and brother in an 18-wheeler they flagged down. Exhausted and dirty, Doyle yesterday dragged himself through the gates to the Astrodome and into an uncertain future.

''I do not even know where my wife and two daughters are," Doyle, 26, said outside the stadium here. ''I just want to get a little help getting established, so I can get my life back together and go back home -- but that's if I want to go back."

Wayne Taylor, who is the same age, said he had already made up his mind. ''I do not think I want to go back. We had to swim under dirty water, where bodies were floating. It was something," he said. ''If I can find a place here, I'll stay. We lost everything."

The 25,000 evacuees who started arriving yesterday at the abandoned sports stadium in Houston face unanticipated choices in their lives: Adopt Houston as a new home and start figuring out how to plant roots? Hold out for a possible return to New Orleans? Relocate somewhere else in the country? Move in with relatives temporarily? Permanently?

The thousands of desperate evacuees got some immediate relief for their personal needs when they reached the Astrodome, which offered amenities that were lacking in the temporary shelter set up in the Superdome in New Orleans: plentiful food, light, running water in bathrooms, air conditioning, and showers. There were cots, too, but nowhere near enough for each of the expected evacuees.

After accepting 11,375 refugees, officials said the Astrodome was full and began sending buses to other shelters in the Houston area last night.

''We've actually reached capacity for the safety and comfort of the people inside there," American Red Cross spokeswoman Dana Allen said.

Buses that continued to arrive were being sent on to other shelters in the area and as far away as Huntsville, about an hour north of Houston.

Many of those who made it in felt an immediate sense of relief after the trauma of Hurricane Katrina, the ensuing floods in New Orleans, and the discomfort of the 350-mile journey to Houston.

''What a journey we've been on to get here," Taylor said. ''I just want to take a shower and then I have to find my mother and my brother."

To get here from New Orleans, many evacuees trekked through neck-deep water as they tried to reach an interstate highway. Most evacuees took buses, but some rode all night in stolen vehicles or hitched rides in trucks.

Texas and Red Cross officials said tens of thousands of other evacuees had already descended on the Houston area, finding refuge in hotels and shelters.

The Red Cross said it had set up phone lines at the Astrodome so that evacuees can call relatives, but they urged relatives not to call the stadium because lines were overloaded.

Some evacuees did not need phones to make a family connection. Arthur Harvey, one of the first to arrive on the buses, spotted relatives who had driven from New Orleans and had gone into the Astrodome to search for him.

Harvey survived in New Orleans by floating for hours with two basketballs stuck in his shirt until he was rescued by the US Coast Guard. He then waited for eight hours in line for a bus headed to the Astrodome.

About 3 a.m. Wednesday, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco asked Texas Governor Rick Perry to take in thousands of evacuees.

''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. ''And knowing such a catastrophe could have happened here, I think Texans have a very special bond between our neighbors to the east."

Also, Dallas and San Antonio agreed to accept 25,000 evacuees apiece. They are expected to be housed in Reunion Arena in Dallas, and Joe Freeman Coliseum and a warehouse in San Antonio.

By late afternoon, several thousand people had arrived at the Astrodome, which was once the home field for the Houston Astros baseball and Houston Oilers football teams but hasn't been used for sports for several years. The buses to Houston were slowed by violence in New Orleans, said officials there. An ambulance service in charge of taking the sick and injured from the Superdome suspended flights after a shot was reportedly fired at a helicopter.

Other evacuees came on their own.

''We came in a stolen Po' Boy truck," said Tytesha Wright, 24, who arrived with her daughter Ronye, 2, her boyfriend, her infant nephew, and her brother-in-law. They left their apartment on Monday, when Hurricane Katrina struck, to stay at a friend's apartment. For several days they stayed in the third-floor apartment. At least twice a day, the men swam through water up their necks -- past dead bodies -- to get to food, milk, and diapers.

''The milk and baby formula went as fast as we could get it," said Wright's boyfriend, Kentrall Diaz.

As the word got out Wednesday morning that Houston had agreed to open the Astrodome to evacuees, they decided to leave, using an air mattress to float to higher ground. Wright, who does not know how to swim, was riding the mattress with her daughter and nephew, when it ripped.

''My heart dropped. She had the babies," said Diaz, who was pushing the mattress, but ended up carrying his girlfriend and their daughter. Her brother-in-law carried Wright's nephew.

They later caught a ride on a police boat and hitched another ride to Interstate 10, where they said they hot-wired a Po' Boy truck left on the side of the road. The trip to Houston, which normally takes six hours, took them 14 hours because the truck broke down four times.

The situation is looking a little brighter, said Wright, who, like most evacuees, nonetheless wore a grim expression. She still has not found her mother and her other two children.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.