Katrina: Dallas, Refugees, & CCW
DOWNTOWN DALLAS SECURITY
Just got back from church in downtown Dallas. Things are a wee bit tense across downtown. If you head downtown, do not slip into condition white and be sure to pack your CCW.
Well, the Dallas City Council committed to taking in 25K of the NOLA refugees and housing them at Reunion Arena (place where the Dallas Mavericks used to play round ball). You ever hear the line, "The sign said 'All you can eat for $1.99, but $1 worth was all that I could stand'?" That is what happened to the city of Dallas. After 10K refugees arrived, Dallas said, "No mas."
Why did Dallas cry, "uncle?"
When the NOLA refugee busses arrived at Reunion Arena, a sizable number of the refugees literally ran off the busses and hightailed it into downtown instead of Reunion. If you recall, the NOLA jails & prisons have been emptied and quite a bit of looting, kidnapping, murder, raping & such has occurred. The Dallas Police Dept and City Council think that those folks, who arrived with pretty much the clothes on their backs, are some of that type and expect them to get what they need not through relief agencies, but through the means they used in NOLA.
The representatives of the Dallas City Council have, uh, "recommended a heightened level of security" in downtown Dallas, especially in the downtown churches on Sundays.
Our Sunday School instructors gave us the lowdown after we ran the gauntlet of heightened security, which caused no small bit of consternation, especially considering one of our church's primary missions is serving the downtown and the folks who end up on the downtown streets. I believe that our leadership took the Council at its word and is doing what it thinks necessary to keep their parishioners and those they service from harm. This heightened security is at the main church as well as the shelters & soup kitchens the church runs. The shelter's & kitchen's usual users are considered to be especially vulnerable. A lot are not firing on all cylinders to begin with & are easily preyed on by more vigorous criminal types.
In the middle of the Sunday School briefing my wife nudged me & asked if I was packing. I nodded "yes." Hey, I had left the house, hadn't I? Why wouldn't I be armed?
Our church, in addition to running the shelters and kitchens, is taking on the plight of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary students & staff. Also, we are helping out some of the refugees not located at Reunion. These are folks who left NOLA in advance of Katrina & expected a hotel stay of 2-3 days before heading back to NOLA.
REUNION ARENA
The refugees at Reunion have their needs met. The local charities are all over them like a bad suit. Food, shelter, clothing are good to go. The locals are busy helping those that can/will work to find local employment. They are being squared away.
OTHER SITES BESIDES REUNION
Others are opening up their businesses & facilities. One of the more prominent is the Quality Inn off of I35E. About 250 families are currently staying there. 250 had arrived before the storm hit and another 100 got out of NOLA by the skin of their teeth. Of these 350, 100 left to go to family & friends elsewhere in the USA. The owners of the Quality Inn is not a parishioner anywhere. They have decided to let the families stay free until they can find accommodations with family & friends. My church sent some of our men there with some PCs & networking gear so that the folks could search the net for work and especially for family they could stay with. A lot of locals are dropping off items for the families and checks for the Davidsons (owners).
Others are opening up their homes. This is kinda risky, for all sorts of reasons. One is that legally, inviting someone into your home to stay or giving the use of a camper leaves you in a much weaker legal position than a landlord would have if things go south. There are other risks that ought to be faced before volunteering your home, especially if you have children.
TEXAS
The state of Texas will eventually absorb 250K (that's a "2" and a "5" followed by four zeroes). Currently, the largest refugee location is San Antonio, because of the vacant military bases and vacant Levi manufacturing plant.
