Houston, TX – The fight for survival goes on in Houston. Families spent all day traveling miles back and forth across the city, looking for opportunities to register for aid that may or may not be there. Many picked up food, water, clothes and toys for their children; walking with awkward loads to wherever they are stuck sleeping for the night.

At the Astrodome/Reliant Center, the fury is spilling over and the repression is building. This morning, the number of police at the barricades was five times what is was yesterday. One outraged resident, Celesta Johnson, of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, exploded, “They have us with bands on our wrists. They make you wear bands when you’re in prison.” She was outside the Astrodome with her friend Felicia Mudro, also of Jefferson, and Felicia’s daughter Curston. The women explained that if the children lost their wristbands, or if a person’s wristband appeared too large, the police would take the band and they would not be allowed back in to the Astrodome at all. “We saw a three-month old baby and her mom sleep out on the street because the baby lost his wristband.” There were many others sleeping out last night because of the curfew, according to the pair.

Many are outraged at what they have been seeing from the time they left New Orleans and are suspicious of what will happen to their city. According to Mark Hooktin, 33, staying in a hotel with his two and one-year old sons and fiancé, “Everyone should have been evacuated 50 hours, 60 hours or more before the hurricane come. I think that dam broke on purpose, that’s what I think. I think they wanted to clear New Orleans, and get all of the Black people from out there. I don’t think they want nobody to come back. But I am going back.”

Hootkins’s feelings about the future of the city were echoed by Roy Camry, a tenth-grade student at Mcdonogh Senior High in New Orleans, “It’s not going to be really for Black people. To tell you the truth, I think they’re going to make it all a big suburb.”

Ms. Mudro and Ms. Johnson also spoke of their harrowing trip out of Jefferson Parish and into Houston. Felicia Mudro recounted her experience; “They treated us like dogs, the military police. They wouldn’t give us water, wouldn’t give us food, passed us up for three days on the highway with our children. The whole world needs to know they are screwing us over.” Both women said they had no choice about coming to Houston. “We didn’t ask to come to Texas, they loaded us up and made us come here.”

A man who worked at Tulane University, who wandered with his wife and three children from Mississippi to Arkansas and then to Houston in search of help, said, “I’m from Bangladesh and there they do a damn good job [of disaster relief], but here…I was just joking that they should send them [FEMA] over there, to train them. Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world, and they do a better job.”

Today at the Astrodome, many people continued to arrive. FEMA showed up in force for the first time. FEMA agents, wearing dark blue uniforms were handing out flyers under signs that said, “No debit cards here today.”

For the past few days, people have been scrambling to get emergency debit cards worth $2,000 to meet buy necessities, move into apartments or leave town. Late yesterday afternoon, people were told to show up for their cards by 8:00 a.m. this morning. Last night it was announced around 9:00 p.m. that FEMA had cancelled the card program. FEMA spokesman Tom Costello was quoted in today’s Houston Chronicle: “We regret the late announcement.” FEMA said they ‘ran out’ of plastic needed to make the cards. Instead, FEMA will direct deposit money to those who have bank accounts or mail checks to those who have mailing addresses.

Besides lining up for hours a day at the Astrodome, people also lined up at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, to continue to chase after FEMA and other aid. One woman, who got sick of getting nowhere on the telephone said, “I called FEMA at 2:30 a.m. in the morning. I put the speaker on and said if she [the operator] came on, I’ll wake up. I did three families in one phone call. I said, ‘Baby don’t hang up cuz I got three families staying in this place and everybody lost everything.”

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Houston, Texas – Hundreds more New Orleaneans came to the Astrodome today seeking help. Yet many were turned away at the security gate and given nothing. The people who left New Orleans before Katrina landed are very aware that without federal government aid, they will not be able to survive much longer.

Heather Pierre, a mother of a two-year old boy talked about being turned away from FEMA help for not having a wristband: “They're telling us to come to the Astrodome to see about FEMA funds, and when we get there they're turning you around at the gate because you don't have a wristband on your wrist. People have been standing here since 5:00 this morning and we haven't been getting any help. I haven't been able to find a job – I don't have any income at all. And if I don't get this help from FEMA, I'm going to be stuck out, just like everybody else. It's a no-win situation out here.”

Of the 1,000,000 people who fled New Orleans before Katrina, several hundred thousand are believed to be living in Houston, Texas. Most people have managed to find friends, family, strangers and hotels to take shelter. But as the draining of their city continues, most are now facing a confusing bureaucracy that drains them financially and emotionally as well.

FEMA? What FEMA!

Thousands of people walked to the Astrodome main entrance. Some were warned by those leaving that they would not be allowed to enter because they were not wearing a wristband.

FEMA cards worth $2,000 in cash value were supposed to be given out to Astrodome residents. Some cards malfunctioned and had no money. Stores next to the Astrodome (Target, Fiesta Mart, Big Lots, Payless Shoes and others) were racking up strong sales throughout the day with clothing, shoes, suitcases and hot, cooked food being the most popular items.

People from New Orleans, outside the Astrodome in Houston.

For non-Astrodome residents to get FEMA cards, you need to go to Social Security to register even if you have already received your FEMA number from their website and then must return to get processed. Today processing of new cards stopped by 2 p.m. because there were too many people. The FEMA phone number had a recorded message, “Because of the high volume of calls for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, all representatives are busy. Your call will now be disconnected.”

“Bush really needs to open his eyes and see what's really going on and get off his high horse and help us. There's too many people walking around here with the clothes on their back,” Thomas said.

The real-feel temperature reached 95 degrees. Taking shade under trees at the intersection of the Astrodome entrance and Kirby Street was a temporary rest for two African American boys who only wanted to attend school. Ninety-nine percent of the people coming to the Astrodome are African American. From yesterday to today, the police and store security guards have become a visible presence watching over the people here.

The government brags about getting folks out of the Astrodome in Houston. However, as the thousands turned away today can speak to, once they are out, all help is gone. Proud families are forced to wander from place to place in search of the basics of food, clothing and shelter. This is the government's version of 'success.' But the people outside the Astrodome today were not fooled. The anger of the mothers, fathers and children was unmistakable.

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