This picture made the "front page" of Fox News. The caption reads: "A member of the military hands out toys to kids from New Orleans as they arrive at a San Antonio shelter." Okay, okay, so the buses were only in the background. But I was really excited to see my fellow Aggies doing this. My student fees helped pay for that bus!
Here's the news from the TAMU website:
Transportation Services at Texas A&M University has sent buses to San Antonio to carry arriving Hurricane Katrina evacuees to shelters in that area.
A caravan of 10 buses complete with 23 student drivers, four managers and four University Police Department representatives left for San Antonio just three hours after getting coordinating approval from Gov. Rick Perry's office.
"We are pleased that we were able to respond quickly to assist the victims of this tragic event," said Rod Weis, director of Transportation Services.
Weis said his department quickly took action yesterday after receiving word that assistance was needed to help hurricane victims. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) officials are coordinating the evacuation of 25,000 people from New Orleans to San Antonio.
The buses and drivers will be used to shuttle the victims from Kelly A.F.B to shelters prepared for them in the San Antonio area.
Preparations were quickly made and the group of drivers, along with Transportation Services managers Laura Johnson, Doug Williams, Jessica Rutherford, and Lynn Wiggs, were ready to go as soon as official approval was given.
They departed at 12:05 a.m. Friday to meet the first four plane loads of evacuees scheduled to arrive there at 8:30 a.m.
Transportation Services officials say Friday is usually a lighter day than most for bus routes, but the lack of the 10 buses may still have some impact so they are asking for patience from anyone who may be inconvenienced.
The group is expected to return to campus around 6 p.m. Sunday (Sept. 4).
For more information, contact June Broughton, Transportation Services, (979) 862-7371 or june@tamu.edu.
Hubby and I are really happy to see San Antonio set up as a shelter area. Hubby just got off his deployment 9 months ago. He was stationed on Lackland AFB, which is right next to Kelly AFB. He says they drilled regularly for evacuations for a Houston hurricane scenario. Those people arriving there are going to be treated to a wonderful rest. The Air Force is all about treating people nicely- completely different from the Army. :) When the military decides to feed you something other than MREs, they really FEED you!
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