Refugees in San Antonio September 2, 2005

“I’m not lost. I’m just homeless,” said one young woman cheerily as she was finding her way to the showers. That’s the kind of resilience that brought these weary, sometimes dazed, people so far from what used to be home in New Orleans, LA.

I just returned from five hours in the refugee center here in San Antonio. I had to fight back tears when I said, “Welcome to San Antonio.”
Most people seemed grateful to have a clean, dry, air-conditioned place to be. They were polite and orderly for the most part—though the long line for clean clothes sometimes got rowdy. Uniformed police officers were everywhere.

Young military troops took down thousands of square feet of office space and dividers so that cots could be put up for the refugees. There were many families and some children without parents. The Red Cross had a very orderly process–Intake Center, medical screening, and immunizations. The refugees wore arm bands similar to hospital “bracelets” with their bed numbers on them. In the sea of beds, it was relatively easy to find someone if you knew their bed number and they were in the vicinity of that bed. It was obvious that we had time to put systems in place that other centers were unable to do.

Once the displaced persons had showers and were given clean clothes, which there was not enough of (some were wearing plastic “scrubbies” until they could get clothes), the main concern for most was connecting with relatives and friends. SBC provided two rooms of phones so people could make calls, but incoming phone calls to individuals were impossible except by personal cell phones. Another need of the refugees was to find out where they were so as to tell relatives and friends where they could be picked up. Some did not know they were in San Antonio. The center is in building 171 on N. Cricket Street which is near the main entrance to Kelly.