In the wake of Katrina, Austin didn’t quite get the overwhelming second line of evacuees who landed in Houston or Dallas, but we opened our hearts and homes to those who landed here and can be justly proud of the city’s response, official and unofficial. Despite a few bumps here and there, the local Red Cross, Salvation Army, numerous other groups, and especially city employees worked day and night to welcome our guests, and for his unstinting, open-hearted hard work, this may well have been Mayor Wynn’s finest hour. We applaud him, his staff, City Manager Toby Futrell and all her staff, and all the city employees (volunteer and otherwise) for reminding us what makes a city is its people – and also, for unofficially recruiting a whole slew of transplant New Orleans artists who will return the favor musically for many, many years.
