The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Inside Houston shelter, a loud and sometimes chaotic night
HOUSTON » The second night inside the George R. Brown Convention Center was louder, more crowded and at times, more chaotic.
People who escaped rising floodwaters and pouring rain spawned by Harvey arrived at the shelter Monday night by the busload and truckload even as the convention center exceeded its capacity of 5,000.
At one point, officers tended to two men lying unresponsive in front of an exit, pushing away onlookers. The men had taken drugs and would both recover within an hour.
Frustration grew in some places, more than three days after the storm ravaged the Texas coastline as a Category 4 hurricane before transforming into a tropical storm that currently sits parked over the Gulf of Mexico ahead of an expected return to shore. One person said she had only gotten one meal Monday while watching others take several helpings of food.
Another person, Kevin
Perkins, described sleeping on the floor and feeling accosted by police officers inside.
“It’s hell,” Perkins said. He shook his head and walked away as Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, during a visit to the convention center Monday, approached near where he was standing.
“All my stuff damaged. I have no clothes, no shoes, no nothing,” he said.
The din inside eventually fell as thousands of people went to bed. Around 7,000 people had arrived before
midnight, with more people still coming.
Harvey will drop more rain Tuesday on a city crippled by f loodwaters that have swamped streets and neighborhoods. The demands on the convention center were expected to grow, even while a new shelter opened Monday night and city officials considered opening more.
With more guests than cots, some people slept on chairs or the f loor. They relied on blankets and pillows provided by the American Red Cross. People hung towels and wet clothes on the base of the ceiling supports inside the convention hall. Police officers guarded several entrances. Outside, dozens of people still awake stood with their pets and traded cigarettes.
New volunteers arrived through the night. David Brady, CEO of the Red Cross’ Texas Gulf Coast chapter, said that the volunteers were critical to making sure evacuees “feel comfortable here, and that they’re willing and wanting to pull those cots together.”
“If we get our staff to be friendly and open and welcoming, hopefully that will create a culture with the folks who are staying in the shelter to do the same thing,” Brady said.
For Howard Thomas, the shelter was a place of last resort.
Thomas described himself as living on the streets. He had spent the three previous nights at a $55-anight motel. But he ran out of money Monday morning.
He was picked up from the motel and taken to the convention center, where he waited to check in carrying just a blue tote bag with his belongings.