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What's Left: A Ravaged Island Covered With Rubbish
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Susie King, another rescued resident, said she and others were carried to the shelter in garbage trucks, "like we was trash."
The city improvised the shelter. When officials announced a mandatory evacuation of the entire island on Thursday, they said there would be no shelters.
Friday morning, as water rose, the city announced that the high school would be open as a "shelter of last resort," with minimal provisions, including no cots or anything other than food and drinking water. Some 261 people wound up at the high school during the hurricane itself. Many were taken there after being rescued from rising water.
Dee Dee Clemmons, 45, said she didn't know a hurricane was on the way until the water began to rise. She hadn't kept track of the news.
"It's a nightmare," she said.
The first night, everyone slept on the slick floor with some police officers watching over them.
During the eye of the storm, the police moved people to the second story.
By the second night, the Army National Guard and FEMA had brought in cots and a few portable toilets. But it was still no place anyone would want to be.
"It's terrible," said Galveston police detective Joey Quiroga.
Quiroga made a hurried announcement on the steps of the school: "Everybody's going to get on the bus."
"Where are we going?" someone asked.
"San Antonio. You're going to have food, water and shelter. Because you're not going to have it here for four to six weeks."
By day's end, the last of the nearly 1,000 people who ended up at the shelter were loaded on buses for the trip off the island.
