NEW ORLEANS — At least 25,000 of Hurricane Katrina's refugees, a majority of them at the New Orleans Superdome, will travel in a bus convoy to Houston and will be sheltered at the Astrodome, which hasn't been used for professional sporting events in years.
Evacuees with special problems already have been evacuated to hospitals in other Louisiana cities, but the 23,000 people now confined to the stuffy, smelly Superdome, as well as some other refugees will go to Houston, about 350 miles away.
The marathon bus convoy should take two days, officials said.
"Our view is the move to the Astrodome is temporary," said William Lokey, chief coordinator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "We're buying time until we can figure something out."
Ann Williamson, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Social Services who is working on the evacuation plans, said, "The remarkable offer from Texas did not have an end date."
FEMA will provide 475 buses for the transfer, and the Astrodome's schedule has been cleared through December for housing evacuees, said Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
The situation inside the dank and sweltering Superdome was becoming desperate: The water was rising, the air conditioning was out, toilets were broken, and tempers were rising.
Word of the move — a logistical nightmare at best — had not reached the Superdome when The Associated Press told administrators about it.
The dome is still surrounded by flooded streets, and getting buses to the ramps will be difficult, if not impossible. The floodwaters are threatening the generators which are providing electricity for the remaining lighting. There has been no air conditioning and only limited lights since city power went out during the hurricane arrived Monday.
National Guardsmen sandbagged a small area around the generator, but the underground fuel tank was covered with water so it could not be refilled until National Guard mechanics and engineers devised a way to bypass the fuel tank and run fuel directly from a truck
"We were down to an hour-and-a-half of fuel." Thornton said.
The generator is now being monitored around the clock. Wednesday morning, it was only 11 1/2 inches above the level of the flood waters.
Power and air-conditioning would be no problem in the Astrodome, although there would be few comforts of home in the stadium seating.
"We want to accommodate those people as quickly as possible for the simple reason they have been through a horrible ordeal," said Rusty Cornelius, administrative coordinator for the Harris County (Texas) Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Cornelius said the refugees would be bused to Houston, but all would not necessarily be on the road at the same time. Specifics of the transport and housing for the refugees were still being worked out with Red Cross and state government officials, he said.
Texas also is looking at the possibility of using the Ford Center in Beaumont for some long-term housing for other evacuees from Louisiana who may be staying in hotels, motels and campgrounds.
"Obviously from Governor Perry's standpoint, Texas is going to lend a helping hand and take care of those who have been devastated," Walt said.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she wanted the Superdome — which had become a shelter of last resort — evacuated within two days, along with other gathering points for storm refugees.
The Astrodome helped put Houston on the map four decades ago. It still stands but is dwarfed by Reliant Stadium, the newly constructed home of the NFL's Houston Texans.
The Astrodome opened in 1965, 10 years before the Superdome in New Orleans.
Associated Press writers Kelley Shannon in Austin, Texas, and Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge contributed to this story.