Preparing a refuge: As their homeless neighbours started to arrive to take up their new accommodation in a vacant American landmark, the Astrodome, Houstonians reflected on what might have been.
Many of those involved in the hurricane-relief effort, from government officials to residents, said that had the wind been blowing down the Gulf Coast towards Texas on Monday, it could have been them.
"We realise that by the grace of God, we could be the ones that have this extra need," said Texas governor Rick Perry.
The city, schools, churches, hotels, hospitals and dozens of relief agencies had prepared the Astrodome for the arrival of the refugees. It has been used only sporadically since baseball's Houston Astros team left four years ago for more modern quarters downtown. Red Cross contractors moved thousands of cots into the cavernous ballpark dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World when it was built in 1965.
A catering company had set up makeshift kitchens. And the air conditioning, so desperately missing in the New Orleans Superdome from which the evacuees had come, was turned on.
"We're essentially picking up a small city and inserting it into Houston," said Frank Michel, the city's communications director.
As the first buses from New Orleans arrived, officials said the challenges would be huge: identifying sick or emotionally traumatised travellers, and helping them to cash cheques and find ATM machines and telephones to contact their families.
The Astrodome refugees represent a second wave of storm victims in Houston. Thousands of families arrived seeking shelter in the days before Katrina hit, staying with friends and family or in local hotels, which are now almost all booked.
All around the sprawling city, the country's fourth-largest, people rose to the sudden challenge. A local CBS-television affiliate held a telethon to raise money for the refugees, local hospitals began evacuating critically ill patients from Louisiana and Mississippi, and Radio Saigon Houston - a local station that broadcasts in Vietnamese - announced that Vietnamese speakers would take in hundreds of Vietnamese storm victims.
The Houston independent school district, which started classes on August 15th and has 209,000 students, announced that it would temporarily enrol any students evacuated from their homes. "We're a large district and we're accustomed to doing things on a large scale," said Harry Abbott, the school district spokesman. "We feel like we have the resources and the space."
Many of the system's 305 schools have excess capacity, Mr Abbott said. Under Texas law, the newcomers will qualify as homeless students for up to 30 days without needing their academic or medical records transferred. After that, things could get complicated. "We know there's a good chance these kids might be here a couple of months or more," he said.
Since the Houston Astros left for the Minute Maid park, the Astrodome has been pressed into service sporadically for high- school football games, trade shows and the annual Houston livestock show and rodeo. The city is debating a permanent use.
"Thank God it's being put to good use and helping people going through a tragedy instead of becoming a bingo hall," said Mary Joyner, a reservation agent at the Hotel Icon downtown. - (LA Times-Washington Post service)