General Discussion

Did Barbara Bush Say Living in the Astrodome Was 'Working Very Well' for Hurricane Refugees?
Barbara Bush reportedly said that Hurricane Katrina refugees being housed in the Astrodome were 'underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.'
Barbara Mikkelson
Published Sept. 7, 2005

Claim:
Former first lady Barbara Bush said that Hurricane Katrina refugees being housed in the Houston Astrodome were "underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
Rating:
True
True
About this rating

On 5 September 2005, Barbara Bush and her husband, former president George H.W. Bush, toured the Astrodome complex in Houston that was being used as temporary lodging for thousands of citizens displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. They visited with evacuees being housed in the stadium, and on their walk-thru of the make-shift quarters that amounted to little more than a sea of cots in a wide open room, they were accompanied by former president Bill Clinton and his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The visit was intended as a bipartisan show of support for victims and a as forum for announcing the creation of the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, a charitable endeavor aimed at facilitating short and long term relief efforts in the afflicted Gulf Coast states.

Later that day, Mrs. Bush was a guest on Marketplace, a show on public radio. During that interview she made these remarks about her interactions with the people quartered in the Astrodome:

Almost everyone I've talked to says, 'We're going to move to Houston.' What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them.