Evacuees

At its peak, Austin was home to 20,000 evacuees in 53 shelters. Presumably, there were just as many staying with family and friends in the area. Even the middle school where I substitute a lot was serving a a shelter - very weird.
I am hearing that now we are down to about 2,000 evacuees - the ones from the Orange/Port Arthur/Beaumont area - and that they are being condensed down to one shelter at the Toney Burger Center, which is where the original Katrina evacuees stayed before being moved to the Austin Convention Center. The downsizing was pretty quick - everyone seemed to hightail it out of here as soon as the hurricane passed through the coastal area.