Ike evacuees complain of violence at city's shelter

TYLER, Texas -- As Hurricane Ike blew through Texas, a different kind of storm was brewing inside an old Wal-Mart hastily converted into a shelter for evacuees.

The building, vacant for two years, quickly became a caldron of tension, with 1,600 people crammed into a structure with a leaky roof, few indoor bathrooms and almost no privacy. Fights soon broke out, and one ended after police allegedly used pepper spray on dozens of evacuees and a Taser on a 15-year-old boy.

Accounts of what happened in the Wal-Mart, drawn from interviews and public records obtained by The Associated Press, raise questions about the soundness of the state's evacuation plan.

Days before Ike hit the Gulf Coast on Sept. 13, more than 3,000 Beaumont residents were taken by bus to Tyler even though the city had told the state it could accommodate only about half that number. The result was a chaotic experience that many won't soon forget.

"I thought, 'Oh Lord, just get us out of here,"' said Verlinda Antoine, 52. "The conditions were too bad for anyone, and they treated us like they didn't want us there. It was a nightmare."

Many claimed the building was unsanitary and that fear of crime and violence was constant.

When a fight between two women in a smoking area attracted numerous onlookers on the second night, police swarmed. Four people, including two juveniles, were arrested on charges that included disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer.

"People refused to move out of the way and wouldn't stop fighting," Tyler police chief Gary Swindle said. The Taser was used after a couple of people threatened an officer with a chair, he said.

But some evacuees tell a different story, saying police were overly aggressive and used racial slurs.

"It was terrible," said Nicholas Harris, 23. "People were just trying to get out, but police blocked the door and used the n-word. People were pushed down. It wasn't right."

Witnesses said the pepper spray was so thick that some bystanders, including a baby and an elderly woman, required medical treatment.

Police reports indicate a Taser was used during the melee to subdue a 17-year-old. But relatives said the device was actually used on his mentally ill 15-year-old cousin as he wiped pepper spray from his eyes. Five days after the incident, the youth showed an AP reporter welts on his back he said were caused by the Taser.

The boy's mother, Felice Wright, said her son, a high school freshman, suffers from bipolar disorder. She said she told police that her son had "mental problems" just before he was shocked with the Taser.

"I think what they did was wrong, and I told them so that night," she said.

Tyler city manager Bob Turner confirmed that some bystanders were inadvertently sprayed, but said police acted properly. "In my opinion, the appropriate amount of force was used to bring a very volatile situation quickly to a calm," he said.

Conditions at the shelter improved the day after the storm, when about half the evacuees were moved to other places.

Still, questions remain about whether Tyler was capable of hosting thousands of evacuees and whether the shelter where most of them were sent should have been used.

Less than two weeks earlier, Louisiana officials were criticized for placing thousands of Hurricane Gustav evacuees from New Orleans in a vacant Sam's Club in Shreveport, La., and an abandoned Wal-Mart in Bastrop, La. A top state official resigned in the aftermath.

"I don't think anybody expects hotel-type amenities," said William P. Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, who contributed to a report detailing deplorable conditions at those facilities. "But with these places, a homeless shelter would be a step up."

Texas' hurricane evacuation plan, created after huge traffic jams and other problems developed during Hurricane Rita in 2005, pairs coastal communities with "sister cities" inland that can accept evacuees. The plan says that people from Beaumont who cannot evacuate on their own should be taken to Tyler.

Few glitches were reported during Gustav, which came ashore in Louisiana on Sept. 1. More than 3,000 Gustav evacuees were taken by bus from Beaumont to Tyler and stayed in conventional shelters without incident.

But the circumstances were different for Ike. Several large Tyler shelters that had housed Gustav evacuees, including the city's convention center, were unavailable because they were needed for future events or being used for other purposes.

Early in the evening of Sept. 10, less than three days before Ike blew ashore, Tyler informed the Governor's Division of Emergency Management that its shelter space had "dwindled drastically," according to e-mails provided to the AP. Several hours later, Tyler said it had room for 1,230 evacuees, though the Wal-Mart could be turned into a shelter "given adequate time" and preparation.

Tyler officials say they heard nothing more until Jefferson County Judge Ron Walker, the county's top elected official, ordered Beaumont to evacuate the next morning.

Walker said he assumed the state's evacuation plan ensured that adequate shelter space was available in Tyler.

"You're telling me they got surprised with this inundation of human beings?" he said. "I hadn't heard that one."

Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said the state provides buses, police and military support, but shelter decisions are made by local officials.

"This was a city-run shelter," she said.