Hurricane Rita Evacuee Shelter Plan Considered Success

SAN ANTONIO -- As of Monday morning, San Antonio had about 2,600 Hurricane Rita evacuees in city shelters.

The American Red Cross is looking back on a job well done.

Officials credit the use of McCreless Mall as a processing center hub for making the evacuation run smoothly.

As soon as officials called a mandatory evacuation for Corpus Christi and other Gulf Coast cities, McCreless Mall was activated as a shelter hub according to the state's new emergency management plan.

Beginning Wednesday all Hurricane Rita evacuees were directed to McCreless for information on which shelters had room.

Red Cross worker Schular Christ said within the first 48 hours, Windsor Park's shelter was filled to capacity with 3,300 evacuees and the two Kelly shelters housed about 4,500.

"Even though there were a lot of people coming through, we were able to get them processed, get them registered, and get them on their way to a shelter where they could have a roof over their head and food in their stomach. It was amazing," Christ said.

For the first time, McCreless was not used as a shelter but as an outdoor processing center for other city shelters.

"(Evacuees) would drive up just like a toll booth and we had volunteers there for 24 hours in the heat in the middle of the night receiving people," said Trisha Box, of the Red Cross.

The McCreless hub closed at noon on Saturday after processing thousands of Rita evacuees.

Using McCreless Mall as a shelter processing center was such a success, it will be called into service any time a Gulf Coast evacuation is needed.