Arizona welcomed over 500 refugees displaced by Hurricane Katrina over the weekend, providing food, medical care and temporary housing at Veteran's Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
Four planes carrying refugees have arrived in Phoenix since Sunday morning, said Cam Hunter, spokeswoman for the Arizona Office of Homeland Security.
Refugees were bused from Sky Harbor Airport to a temporary shelter at the Coliseum, which is set up to house 1,100 people, Hunter said.
While no more flights are scheduled to arrive in Phoenix at this point, the state is ready to house more evacuees, Hunter said.
"That doesn't mean more aren't coming," Hunter said. "[The Federal Emergency Management Agency] asked us if we'd take at least 1,000, and we know we're going to take more than that."
The Tucson Convention Center has already been set up to accommodate 800 refugees. If more housing is needed, the state is looking at different sites in Phoenix and Tucson, including ASU, Hunter said.
ASU spokeswoman Terri Shafer said ASU has been in contact with Gov. Janet Napolitano's office to offer Wells Fargo Arena as a housing location.
"At this point we're still on standby," Shafer said. "They haven't asked us to do anything yet. It's going to depend on how many actually show up in Arizona."
The arena would serve as temporary housing while permanent locations were found.
"The original thought was if there were going to be a lot of them, we were going to have to use Wells Fargo as a temporary holding place," Shafer said.
ASU has also enrolled at least 50 university students whose schools were affected by the floods, Hunter said.
On Sunday, refugees like Jacqueline Pons said they were just glad to be in Phoenix.
Pons, who was evacuated with her father and three sons, said she stayed in her home about six blocks from the Superdome until she was rescued by a helicopter early Sunday morning.
Floodwater had covered Pons' front door since a levee broke Wednesday, she said. When her family ventured out in a boat to try to get ice from a nearby hospital, they were met by the smell of dead animals floating in the streets. The scene around the hospital wasn't much better.
"They had people in wheelchairs, dead. They had bodies stacked up," Pons said.
Phoenix has been wonderful, Pons said, but she's not planning to stay long.
"I'm glad to get out of New Orleans, out of the water, but I'm going to Mississippi. I'm going to my mother's house," she said.
Fred Smittick, another refugee, also said he appreciated the people in Phoenix.
"They can't give you enough," he said.
Smittick said he didn't know he was on his way to Arizona until he boarded the plane Sunday morning.
"I'm just trying to get away from the thing right now. The aftermath is still replaying in my head," Smittick said.
Arizona will help refugees who don't have a place to go find permanent housing Hunter said.
"They're here, they're in a safe place, give them a chance to regroup," said Judy Kiowski, spokeswoman for Arizona's division of emergency management. "Really, these people need to decompress and figure out where they're going to go."
State Press editor Ryan Kost contributed to this story.
Reach the reporter at amanda.keim@asu.edu.
