by Last Night in Little Rock

Evacuees are landing at Ft. Chafee, AR by the hundreds as already noted here. Yesterday I was on I-40 for 2-1/2 hours each way to and from Ft. Smith, and the buses were still coming and going, with markings from many states. A lawyer friend in Ft. Smith reported a dozen buses heading south back to New Orleans on US-71 (via Shreveport) yesterday.

The local newspaper for Ft. Chafee is the Southwest Times Record of Ft. Smith. Today's edition discusses:

• local school officials preparing to absorb the children into their systems.

• More "evacuees" being sent from Chafeee elsewhere

• A survivor complaining his is not a criminal and shouldn't be treated like one.

The statewide paper is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a separate Northwest Arkansas Edition. Its coverage today:

• State officials still are trying to get a handle on the numbers of evacuees so they can be given medical care, housing, and jobs.

• Ft. Chafee is now a processing point for evacuees, and 2,000 have been processed through the hospital alone, with 300 having been transferred to area hospitals. Many are being sent elsewhere.

• The Northwest Arkansas Regional Campus of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has undertaken training National Guardsmen as medics.