The AP reported the following at 3:39 Eastern:
Link to story
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Heavily armed policemen and guardsmen stood watch and handed out water Thursday as tense and exhausted crowds struggled onto buses that would deliver them from the miserable conditions of the Superdome.
I'm sure that this has been posted in some of the threads around here, on what I'm sure will be a record-breaking day. This should last maybe 5 minutes on the diary list for most people. As a reminder, in your settings, you can set the number of diaries you see to 50, and see a lot more diaries a lot longer.
The first group of buses Thursday arrived hours late, and an angry group of residents broke through a line of National Guardsmen before they were stopped by 19 heavily armed state policemen -- one had an AR15 rifle and another a 12-gauge shotgun. But the mood lightened later in the day as things began moving more smoothly.
''I would rather have been in jail,'' Janice Jones said in obvious relief at being out of the dome. ''I've been in there seven days and I haven't had a bath. They treated us like animals. Everybody is scared.''
Miranda Jones, her daughter, was standing next to her, carrying her father's ashes -- the only thing they were able to save from her house.
Authorities had said Wednesday that some 25,000 people who had been in the Superdome since Sunday, taking shelter from Hurricane Katrina, would be taken to the Houston Astrodome. The crowds at the New Orleans arena suffered in hot, smelly conditions with few supplies and no air conditioning.
The first buses left late Wednesday, and officials in Texas said that 2,000 people had already arrived at the Astrodome, some 350 miles away, by late morning Thursday. Besides the 25,000 or so hurricane refugees being brought to Houston, Texas officials said another 25,000 would be taken to San Antonio and other locations.
An angry Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans' emergency operations, watched the slow procession from the Superdome on Thursday morning and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency response was inadequate.
''This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control,'' Ebbert said. ''We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans.''