HOUSTON, Sept. 2 -- Police directed thousands of storm evacuees from the overstretched Astrodome out of Houston, while officials pleaded for patience in a city that over 36 hours has come to resemble a huge refugee camp.
Houston is sheltering as many as 200,000 people who fled Louisiana and Mississippi, area leaders estimated. The tally includes those who left before Katrina hit and who were in hotels or private homes, as well as others who have arrived since Thursday. Just 300 of the city's 55,000 hotel rooms are vacant, officials said, with many of the rest occupied by multiple people.
"This is just the beginning of what will be many months of trying to bring normalcy to these people's lives," Gov. Rick Perry (R) said outside the Astrodome, where 15,000 evacuees have arrived from Louisiana and thousands more are expected to stay.
Although officials from Pennsylvania to Utah offered shelter, the Lone Star State remained a key destination, with authorities straining to keep order among a tide of traumatized people.
All day Friday, state troopers worked to relieve pressure on Houston, diverting buses to Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Lubbock, Corpus Christi, Amarillo and a string of hamlets in eastern Texas. In waves, the newcomers settled into venues large and small, from a former Air Force base in San Antonio to a church in Huntsville.
"People should be asking themselves in this region where they know of a garage apartment where people can stay," Houston Mayor Bill White said.
Perry said he had spoken with officials in West Virginia, Arkansas and Utah, who all offered to take in refugees.
In Philadelphia on Friday, Mayor John F. Street announced a plan to house as many as 1,000 families from the disaster area in vacant schools, public housing, a defunct hotel and two shuttered hospitals. "On one hour's notice, we can provide housing for up to 400 families," spokesman Joe Grace said.
Such offers, while generous, hardly make a dent in the mass of desperate humanity that has been squeezed into the Astrodome, a vacant sports stadium transformed into a roofed, air-conditioned city of cots, hot food, clinics and playgrounds.
Officials acknowledged Friday morning that they had misjudged the stadium's capacity. They made plans to move thousands of people to nearby convention centers.
"They said there was no more room, that they couldn't take in any more people," said Toscha Williams, who stood with her cousin and their five children as they prepared to board yet another bus.
On the sidewalk, volunteers set up impromptu food and clothing banks, and unloaded trucks of supplies.
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