Wednesday, August 31

it's a long way to Tipperary


It's an 8-hour drive from Dallas to New Orleans (a distance of about 525 miles), so I was surprised to hear that some of those who were in the path of Hurricane Katrina ended up here. Was every motel between here and there full? What will happen when the mandatory evacuation order takes effect? That's a LOT of people to relocate (the 2000 census says 484,674).

Word is that those who ended up at the Superdome will soon be en route the Astrodome in Houston (a mere 350 miles away).

For years, I've known about calling

911 (emergency!) and
411 (directory information) and
611 (telephone service) and even
311 (city services)

but somehow I missed 211 (community services and volunteer opportunities). According to their website, dialing "211" works all across Texas.

PS: bonus points to anyone who knows that Tipperary is an Irish County. Pity points to anyone who knows the complete lyrics to the World War I song "It's a long way to Tipperary"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As early as Sunday night, we had guests in the restaurant from New Orleans.

Anonymous said...

reunion arena is now an open shelter

Gene said...

Stella Bob:

yep, I heard about Reunion Arena. Guess they found a use for that building after the Mavericks & Stars moved to the AAC.

Does this mean the two temporary shelters (Grauwyler & _?_) will be closed?

I'm mildly surprised that evacuees landed in Dallas by Sunday PM .. you'd think they'd found someplace in between. Then again, when do you "put up" a million refugees?