On the move again, Katrina evacuees flee another storm

HOUSTON – They waded through the chest-high floodwaters in the streets of New Orleans. They were plucked from their rooftops in the rescue baskets of helicopters. They survived the hell of the Louisiana Superdome and a 350-mile bus ride to Texas.

Now, just a few weeks after getting settled at emergency shelters in Houston, Hurricane Katrina evacuees are on the move again to escape another storm.

“This reminds me of the Israelites marching in the desert,” Norman Bethancourt, 51, said as he waited for a bus to take him from Reliant Arena to Ellington Field, where he and the other refugees were set to board planes bound for a military base in Arkansas.

About 1,100 evacuees – down from a high of nearly 10,000 – living in Houston’s two largest shelters, Reliant Arena and the George R. Brown Convention Center, began making their way to Fort Chaffee, Ark., as Hurricane Rita strengthened into a hurricane and lashed the Florida Keys.

Forecasters said Rita would continue to gain strength as it crossed the warm Gulf of Mexico and would probably come ashore in Texas over the weekend.

Houston officials said moving the evacuees was necessary because the shelters might not hold up in a major hurricane. They hoped to have everyone moved by Tuesday night.

The evacuees carried little. Some had a backpack, others a plastic bag. A few had pillows. One girl, tears streaming down her face, carried a stuffed toy in a little cage.

“A lot of people didn’t want to go,” said Wayne Sylvester, who was wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed: “I Survived Katrina.” “Choice is you don’t have a choice.”

Coast Guard Lt. Joe Leonard said 10 planes flew refugees to Arkansas on Tuesday, and officials were prepared to move another 2,300 today, if needed.

Other refugees went to shelters in Dallas, stayed with family and friends, or returned to Louisiana. “They can go wherever they want,” said Leonard, who is overseeing shelters in Houston. “There are opportunities to be bused to various places.”

Many of the evacuees were not happy about leaving for Arkansas.

“Hell. It’s been pure hell,” said Lisa Banks, 33, who was outside Reliant Arena with her four children, ages 8 to 15. “I’m not going to Arkansas. I feel like a rag doll, people throwing me around.”

Texas officials also were planning to move Louisiana evacuees out of shelters in Corpus Christi and Beaumont. In all, some 4,000 were headed for Arkansas and 3,000 to Tennessee.