NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Gunfire and arson disrupted Thursday's mass evacuation of hurricane refugees from New Orleans' Superdome to Houston's Astrodome.
Richard Zuschlag, spokesman for Acadian Ambulance, said shots were fired at a military helicopter over the Superdome, and fires were set outside the stadium complex.
While the airlift of sick and injured was suspended, the movement of able-bodied people from the stadium into buses bound for Houston's Astrodome continued, MSNBC reported.
Before Hurricane Katrina struck Monday morning, more than 12,000 people flocked to the New Orleans Superdome for refuge. By Tuesday, conditions degraded, with gaping holes in the roof, backed-up toilets and fetid air created by a lack of electricity and air conditioning.
When news of the Texas evacuation spread in the flooded city, thousands more people flocked to the stadium in hopes of getting out.
Desperation and frustration fed into a surge in looting and violence that led to the dispatch of some 28,000 police-empowered National Guard troops in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
