At the New Orleans Convention Center, another place where more than 1,000 refugees have sought shelter, an overwhelming sense of abandonment permeated the arena as much as the stench of overflowing bathrooms. In one corner, an older woman and a teenage boy were having seizures in the arms of relatives.

Louis Martin Sr., a truck driver who has been at the convention center since Tuesday, said: "The trucks kept passing us up - they just kept going farther east. We have no security, no security."

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"Hell no, I'm not glad to see them," said Michael Levy, 46, whose remarks were cheered by those around him. " They should have been here days ago. I ain't glad to see 'em. I'll be glad when 100 buses show up. We've been sleeping on the ground like rats."

Evacuees at the center told a reporter that they had seen
seven dead bodies on the third floor, and said a 14-year-old girl had been
raped.