http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9175611/Updated: 12:58 p.m. ET Sept. 3, 2005
NEW ORLEANS - Several thousand people still trapped in squalor at the Superdome climbed aboard buses Saturday morning as evacuations resumed after an overnight disruption.
Evacuations were halted before dawn Saturday as authorities diverted buses to help some 25,000 refugees at the New Orleans Convention Center, where officials said people had been waiting longer.
The Texas Air National Guard estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000 people remained at the Superdome, a frightening scene of filth, violence and despair. Lt. Kevin Cowan of the state Office of Emergency Preparedness put the figure at 2,000, and said they had recently begun flocking there not for shelter, but to escape New Orleans after they heard buses were arriving.
Those left behind were orderly early Saturday, sitting down after being told that evacuations were temporarily stalled. Cleanup crews raked away the piles of abandoned goods to discourage rats, and the scene was calm as the exhausted refugees patiently waited in five lines for their place on a bus.