Five Days After Katrina, Refugees Waiting

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http://bastrop.townnews.com/articles/2005/08/31/ap/headlines/d8ccqisg0.txt

Five Days After Katrina, Refugees Waiting

By ROBERT TANNER
NEW ORLEANS - A day after the National Guard finally arrived in force and began mass evacuations, thousands of people remained behind Saturday as fires belched ribbons of smoke over the city and sporadic gunfire echoed through the night.

Thousands from the Superdome were taken to Texas on air-conditioned buses, but early Saturday the operation was halted _ with 2,000 in the stadium alone still to be evacuated five days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

At the New Orleans Convention Center, where as many as 20,000 people have gathered since the storm, Jennifer Washington was among the frustrated evacuees who spent another morning waiting for buses to come.

"At first they said 6:30 this morning, then they said 9, but there are no buses. They promised us buses," said Washington, 25, who has four children but lost them in the storm.