Wet, worried, and weary. The number of evacuees and rescued storm victims continue to pour into Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center as Harvey batters the Gulf Coast region for a fifth straight day.
The building could fit 30 football fields inside, but volunteers at the mega-shelter said they have already far exceeded the 5,000 people they were initially prepared for. The latest headcount from the American Red Cross: 10,400.
And the doors remain open.
“Last night there were people coming in the hundreds, soaked,” Red Cross spokesperson Mary Jane Mudd told CTV News. “We are working as quickly as we can to get people safe, to get them under a roof, get them food, get them covered in a blanket, and get them a place to rest. We can’t just turn people away.”
The relentless influx of displaced humanity is stretching resources further by the hour. Mudd said enough food, hygiene kits, bedding, and other supplies for 34,000 people are on order, but the roads are still snarled by water and debris. Towels, clothing, socks, pillows, blankets, even yoga mats are being requested as donations. Almost nothing is tuned away if it can make people more comfortable.
Mudd said many evacuees arrived at the convention centre within moments of being rescued from rooftops, with nothing more than soaked clothing to call their own.
She’s lived in Houston for the past quarter century, and said she can’t believe how the spirit of the community is unbroken by the storm.
“The resilience is unbelievable,” she said. “Just this morning, one lady who has no home said, ‘Can I give my cot to somebody else?’”
Kimberly Wilson arrived at the convention centre Tuesday afternoon with her 69-year-old mother Carolyn after floodwaters swallowed the home they moved into just days ago. They abandoned a car full of belongings in a parking lot downtown that they hope to reclaim after the storm passes.
“I feel safe right now. I’m covered and I’m not outside. That is a blessing,” Carolyn said.
Rukiya Brown woke up on Sunday to floodwater pouring into her first floor apartment. She quickly realized it was time for her and her four-year-old son Jacob to leave.
“There were people everywhere, boats, trucks, and families just walking down the street in the rain. Water just kept coming in,” Brown said.
Jacob stays close to his mother. He seems in good spirits, showing off a colourful extra pair of socks he picked out from a table of donations.
“They’re so young. They don’t know what is going on,” Rukiya said of the scores of children calling the convention centre a temporary home. “You just got to make it the best for them.”
A common topic of conversation is whether city officials should have ordered an evacuation once they realized the scale of the storm.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said it would be “too chaotic” to attempt to usher everyone out of harm’s way. But some at the convention centre said they wish they had received an order to evacuate like other cities in the storm’s path.
“It was pretty bad,” said Kimberly Wilson. “We had been foretold about it.”
Others felt authorities didn’t mobilize rescue operations quickly enough.
“They waited too long,” said Rukiya Brown. “This is the result of it.”
Relief for those at the George R. Brown Convention Center is on the way. Houston officials announced a major shelter at NRG Park that can accommodate up to 10,000 evacuees from Harvey. Doors opened at 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
With a report from CTV’s Melanie Nagy in Houston, Texas, and files from The Associated Press
