The camp is patrolled around the clock, with eight to 10 officers on duty during the day and up to 20 at night, Anderson said. Community-oriented policing is the approach, he said, with officers on foot and on bicycles, interacting with the evacuees and getting them the help they need.

"We're running it as if it was a city," Anderson said.

No arrests have been made since the first wave of evacuees arrived Saturday night, he said, although one case has been referred to Salt Lake County prosecutors for possible charges. In that case, a man used his cell phone to send an indecent photograph to the cell phone of a female teenage volunteer.

Law enforcers have also identified and are keeping separate several gang members, Anderson said. A few problems have surfaced, but nothing violent or not easily handled.

"It's really been quite quiet. It's been very good, and we like that," Anderson said.

Resident Mike Ford, who landed in Utah early Sunday morning on a Utah Air National Guard plane, said his experience at Camp Williams has been "great. It's been really wonderful." Ford first found refuge from the storm at the New Orleans Convention Center, where he says he saw things — violence, hunger, death — he can't even talk about.

He said Camp Williams is a welcome change to the sleepless nights at the convention center. "We've had a few minor things here and there, but nothing like the convention center. I'm thinking we got the cream of the crop here in Utah."

The only problem he's heard about is a stolen purse, a few men in the restricted women's barracks and a mentally ill person scaring other evacuees.

Glenn Lockwood, operations director for the Utah Red Cross, said things are coming together at Camp Williams. Every disaster relief operation takes a few days to "work out the kinks," he said, and everything is finally running smoothly.

"We're setting up an entire socio-economic structure," Lockwood said. "It's not an easy job. For every issue we solve, we have 10 more things pop up."

The state Department of Workforce Services has a strong presence at Camp Williams, with a volunteer staff of 15 people taking applications for food stamps and cash assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as running relocation efforts and helping those interested in staying in Utah find a job and temporary housing.

A few people have said they intend to stay in Utah, something agency workers are encouraging evacuees to do, Nixon said.

"We don't want to put a drain on Houston. They have enough people already," he said.

The Houston Astrodome is at capacity with 60,000 evacuees, with another 70,000 in other Houston shelters. Altogether, nearly 250,000 displaced Gulf Coast residents have made their way to Texas.

It's unclear how many more evacuees will come to Utah. Camp Williams is set up to handle as many as 2,000. The Air National Guard has said people could continue coming throughout the week; there were no arrivals Monday.

FEMA approved disaster aid funding to Utah for its relief effort. An amount was not specified, but the agency said the reimbursement would cover relief expenditures as of Aug. 29.

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Contributing: Leigh Dethman

E-mail: awelling@desnews.com