Wednesday, August 31, 2005

The Astrodome

The city of Houston has been pondering what to do with the Astrodome for some time. The facility that has seen baseball triumphs, rodeos, football joy and heartbreak will now have its finest hour.

Texas officials have worked out a plan to bring up to 23,000 refugees from the Superdome to Houston's Astrodome.

Hurricane refugees trapped in the Superdome will come to the 40-year-old Astrodome in over 500 buses under plans being put together by state and local officials.

"It will be a noble calling for the grand lady at this time in her career,'' said Harris County Judge Robert Eckels.

Librarians with the Harris County Public Library are already making plans to take library services such as internet access and storytime to the refugees.

More:

ABC13 reports--Houston Independant School District will educate the children of New Orleans for the duration.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a generous offer from the Houston schools!

Camille said...

Our district west of Houston was also enrolling these children today.

Michele said...

Do you know if anyone's heard from Jameela yet ? I currently cannot access the email account to which the Child_Lit Digest is sent, so I've no idea what's the latest news...

Anonymous said...

The branches of the Houston Public Library have seen an incredible increase in computer usage over the past week. In fact, several of their branches have opened up their computer labs for exclusive use by evacuees and are offering free printing and copying (which normally is a cost service).

I know that Harris County and Houston Public have discussed coordinated efforts in bringing storytimes, computer labs and other services to evacuation sites. Both libraries have Web pages dedicated to providing information about resources and other aid opportunities for our Gulf Coast neighbors.

Camille said...

Library services are always vital to a community's life. Times like this show how critically needed they are.

The planning that has gone into providing library services to the evacuees makes me so proud of the professionals in this area.