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Effects of the Storm :: Hurricane Katrina :: Aftermath : Convention Center
The New Orleans Convention Center was also opened up to evacuees, but by Thursday, September 1, the facility, like the Superdome, was overwhelmed and declared unsafe and unsanitary. Reports indicated that up to 20,000 people had gathered at the convention center, many dropped off after rescue from flooded areas of the city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_Hurricane_Katrina_on_New_Orleans
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Aftermath : Convention Center
The New Orleans Convention Center was also opened up to evacuees, but by Thursday, September 1, the facility, like the Superdome, was overwhelmed and declared unsafe and unsanitary. Reports indicated that up to 20,000 people had gathered at the convention center, many dropped off after rescue from flooded areas of the city. Others were directed to the center by police as a possible refuge. However, even though there were thousands of evacuees at the center, FEMA claimed to have no "factual" knowledge of the use of the Convention Center as a shelter until the afternoon of September 1.
Those able to walk the distance could have left the Convention Center, and the city, via the Crescent City Connection Bridge, but were prevented from doing so at gunpoint by Gretna, LA sheriffs [26]. Unruliness among some evacuees contributed to the difficulty of relieving conditions at the center; in one case, a supply helicopter was unable to land due to crowding. Eventually, soldiers managed to toss supplies to the crowd from 10 feet (3 m) off the ground. [27]
By Friday, September 2, military support at the convention center had established a steady supply of water and emergency rations as evacuation efforts were in progress; buses arrived later that day to pick up the refugees and take them elsewhere. By September 4, the Convention Center had been completely evacuated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_Hurricane_Katrina_on_New_Orleans
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