Harvey Evacuees Greeted by ‘the Welcoming Arms of Dallas' at Walnut Hill Rec Center

If Francisco Tecorral had a say in things, he'd probably be at home right now -- in Pasadena, tucked between Houston and Galveston Bay. Despite the catastrophic storm churning off the coast, the 24-year-old didn't want to head to Dallas early Friday morning. But his wife made him."She said, 'I want to leave, I want to leave,'" Tecorral said Friday afternoon, sitting at a picnic table beneath a shade tree next to the Walnut Hill Recreation Center. "At 6 this morning, she said, 'Get up, get up.'" And I said, 'OK, I might as well. Let's take a little road trip.' It's better than being without power for a week."And so, early Friday morning, they gathered their seven children and a friend and headed north, for the rec center now serving the first of four potential shelters should thousands of Gulf Coast residents likewise head for Dallas.As of Friday afternoon, Dallas and Red Cross officials said they expected around 60 evacuees to spend the night at the rec center -- "as welcome guests of the city," in the words of council member Jennifer Staubach Gates, whose northwest Dallas district includes the rec center. Should it exceed capacity, which is around 500, two other rec centers will be turned into shelters.   Continue reading...