200 Evacuees Calling Milwaukee Home -- For Now
People Will Stay At State Fair Park
Posted: 3:54 pm CDT September 8, 2005Updated: 4:08 pm CDT September 9, 2005
MILWAUKEE -- More than 200 evacuees from New Orleans are making Wisconsin their temporary home.The evacuees were taken straight from the streets of New Orleans to the aiport and put on a plane without even knowing where they were going. Many told 12 News they didn't care.About 90 landed at an Air National Guard based in Milwaukee Thursday afternoon, and then, a second plane carrying 87 evacuees arrived Thursday night.The evacuees were part of the mandatory evacuation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.Some 17 pets were in tow, including a 3-week-old kitten one man had plucked from a log floating down a street.The evacuees were evaluated at a processing center at the 128th Air Refueling Wing near General Mitchell International Airport, then sent to the Red Cross at Wisconsin's State Fair Park. They were greeted at the 128th by Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle.Many walked off the plane with just a garbage bag or duffle bag filled with their belongings, but some had just the clothes on their back, 12 News reporter Nick Bohr said.Doyle said that Wisconsin is among the first states to start receiving evacuees, and he expects more to arrive in the next few days.
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