Making a so-called life in a retired stadium

But there are also constant reminders of what is missing.

An electronic scoreboard, which once flashed baseball and football scores, announces: “Parks Family Looking for Juanita Coleman.” Glassy eyed adults roaming among the cots, seeking news of a loved one by holding up placards that read, “Stacker,” “Dorsey,” “Honore.”

At the message center at the east end of the Astrodome, on two, 15-by-8-foot walls, refugees and people who have driven from Kansas, Las Vegas, Portland, Atlanta, New Jersey to search for lost family members post anguished appeals in a multicolored, multilayered collage.
The scraps of cardboard, cigarette cartons and post-its, in writings of crayon, marker, pencil, carry messages like:

“TYRONE YOUNG we are looking for you. We are in Texas. Call 281-591-1203.”

“CAMRON ... Dad’s Looking ... 504-202-3729.”

“Alice Robinson ... Glenda is here so look for me ... Dansa Robinson.”

Searching and wishing
Emotions tend to run high at the Message Center — some good, some not so good.

Dwayne Blackman, 44, who lives in Wichita, Kansas, is hugging his sister-in-law, Kiwana Johnson, and his mother, Viola. His six-day search has just ended with a tearful embrace.

“This is our start,” Johnson says.

“Yes, ma’am,” he chokes.

Later, Kristen McWeen, 22, and her cousin, Nieche Martin, saw each other for the first time since floodwaters in New Orleans pulled them apart in New Orleans six days earlier.

From a distance of 20 feet, they locked eyes, blinked, hollered, ran to one another, and threw themselves into each other arms, screaming, “JUST HOLD ME! HOLD ME! HOLD ME!”

For many, though, such joy is still a wish away.

Kathleen La France, 40, holding up a cardboard sign that reads, “Lil’ Arnold and Big Arnold” stops in front of the message board. She’s been up for three days, she says, searching the Astrodome and the Reliant Center, across the road, for her 14-year-old son and husband.

“I’m so out of it — I’m just walking and walking and walking. I don’t eat. I can’t sleep. Nobody’s telling me nothing. But I ain’t giving up.”

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