Here's an article about the current situation in Houston.
No mention of increased crime...
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3342643
Tally of evacuees in Houston shelters drops dramatically
By BECKY BOWMAN and SALATHEIA BRYANT
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle HURRICANE KATRINA
The number of Katrina evacuees counted at Houston's largest shelters is dropping dramatically as people leave for new accommodations, new jobs and new lives.
According to the latest tally, considered the most reliable to date, 8,066 hurricane victims are still stranded at the three Reliant Park shelters and the downtown George R. Brown Convention Center, down from 25,400 reported just Tuesday. It's evident at a glance that evacuees have more breathing room than they did last weekend, but it's hard to track how many people are simply switching shelters, moving in with relatives or actually finding more permanent housing. In fact, it's hard to get an accurate headcount at all.
After Reliant Park imposed a curfew for the first time last night, authorities were able to do their most accurate headcount so far. But during the day, no one stands guard at the gates to ask evacuees whether they're going out for groceries or leaving for good, so even the latest numbers are fluid. People are free to pack up and go without notifying anyone, and they do just that.
"I wouldn't say there was a large exodus in the last 24 hours," said Coast Guard Lt. Joe Leonard, who's in charge of Houston's megashelters.
Although lines are shorter and no one's fighting over cots anymore, there are still plenty of people in need of help. This morning's tally of evacuees came to 2,930 in the Astrodome, down from 16,000 on Tuesday; 1,800 in the Reliant Arena, down from 4,500; 2,000 in Reliant Center, down from 2,400; and 1,336 in the George R. Brown Convention Center, down from 2,500.
Gregory Smith of the Red Cross warned that the constantly changing numbers should be regarded as "a living thing."
"People should be prepared to be flexible with these shelter figures," he said.
The opportunities to leave are growing by the day. Airlines are offering free or discounted flights to evacuees, friends and relatives are arriving to whisk them away, and today's decision by the federal government to pass out $2,000 debit cards will pay for gasoline or bus tickets that were out of reach before.
But for some of those who've arrived from New Orleans, the prospect of venturing out into Houston is intimidating.
Eighteen-year-old Marcus Poole, a community college student who worked at a rental car agency back home in Louisiana, is finding that looking for a job is no easy task in a city so sprawling. Houston's even bigger than he remembers it as a child visiting AstroWorld.
"I feel like I'm in another country, being in a city so big," he said.
Many of those who choose to stay are still trying to connect with loved ones. Still sitting on her cot with her family today, Alisha Bush, 33, is anxious to reach her 15-year-old daughter, who was taken to shelter in Arkansas. Bush thinks she has the best chance of a reunion if she stays put.
She has been in the Astrodome since last Wednesday, when the overcrowded floor forced people to sleep in the stands.
"The lines are getting shorter and shorter," Bush said. "It is clearing out."
Wanda Payton, 44, she said she was expecting to leave tomorrow for a three-bedroom house offered by a Channelview woman.
"It has died down. They are getting people out," she said.
For those who are staying for now at least, officials have turned their attention to needs like food stamps, school registration and medical care.
Local and federal authorities are finalizing a special housing subsidy "voucher" program, good for at least six months and perhaps a year, to serve 25,000 displaced families.
Carlos Antonio Rios / Chronicle
Derek Marigny Sr. of New Orleans makes a sign expressing his gratitude for the hospitality that Houston has shown him and other evacuees. He is staying in the Reliant Astrodome and says he is waiting to hear from his wife, Darlene, who got separated from him in New Orleans.
Meanwhile, the shelters have opened job booths and the Texas Workforce Commission and Federal Emergency Management Agency were expected to send representatives there today. The federal agency could help with a variety of services, including housing and unemployment aid.
"Our focus this week is to begin the process of re-integrating our guests," said state Rep. Rick Noriega, a CenterPoint Energy official tapped by Mayor Bill White to run the facility at the convention center.
The city's shelters were originally set up to serve as a clean environment in which evacuees could sleep.
"We're seeing, obviously, that mission shifting," said Noriega, a Texas Army National Guard officer. "We're becoming a little more service-focused."
Registering for help
Some of the help is coming from volunteers with Operation Compassion, a massive relief effort led by Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston and spearheaded by the Second Baptist Church. The thousands of volunteers from 131 local congregations have assumed primary responsibility for feeding the masses of storm victims who have taken refuge here.
"It's blessing me probably more than it's blessing them," said volunteer Wanda Brock, 68, a member of Second Baptist Church who was dishing out barbecue Tuesday. "It's a real eye-opener to see how blessed you are when you see people who have lost so much."
At the convention center's job booth, evacuees picked up fliers and added their names to a 12-page list of people looking for jobs.
Potential employers can browse the list, and some companies also have posted jobs on another list.
East New Orleans resident Gabrielle Thomas, 30, who is living with 13 other evacuees in a friend's two-bedroom home in Sugar Land, came to the shelter seeking help to get her life back on track.
A job, she said, would be a first step.
"I can't go back there for a few months, and I need work," said Thomas, who worked as a clerk to a juvenile court judge. "I lost everything I had."
With forecasts that 400,000 to 500,000 people could lose their jobs because of the hurricane, the Labor Department has announced plans to spend up to $75 million in emergency assistance for evacuees who now are living in Texas.
The money would provide assistance to 37,500 evacuees by temporarily putting them to work providing food, clothing, shelter and other assistance to storm victims.
'I've been there, done that'
While so many people looked for jobs and permanent housing, plans to move as many as 4,000 evacuees to cruise ships in Galveston were put on hold. Many who had taken refuge in the Astrodome said they would rather stay in the stadium than move to the ships, officials said.
"I don't want to be on no water," said James Givens, 48, a longshoreman who is trying to find a place other than the Astrodome to live. "I've seen enough water to last me a long time."
When she heard about the offer to live on a cruise ship, Bobbie Williams, 44, rose from her cot, shaking her head emphatically.
"No, no, no, no more water," she said. "I don't want to see no more water. I've been there, done that. Not right now."
Evacuee Wallace James, 48, spent part of his day at the Social Security Administration, trying to get a check he was owed. He hopes he can use the money to move out of the Astrodome and into subsidized housing.
"If things don't work out, I'll just move on to another state," James said.
He said many Louisiana residents are trying to look forward.
"We ain't trying to talk about where we came from," he said. "We're trying to talk about where we're going."
Chronicle reporters Matt Stiles, Armando Villafranca, Jennifer Radcliffe, Monica Guzmán and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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