146 more evacuees here

From the warmth of the Big Easy to a chilly night in Salt Lake City, 146 more victims of Hurricane Katrina arrived late Sunday.

Volunteers wrapped each evacuee in a blanket as they deplaned shortly after 10 p.m., many of them carrying their only possessions in plastic shopping bags. Many appeared exhausted, yawning and rubbing their backs as they were escorted to processing centers at the Utah Air National Guard Base.

Others, like the 60-something woman with her hair wrapped in a blue towel, took a bow and thanked the line of well-wishers waiting to greet each evacuee.

Harold Scott said his home was not flooded, but he left because there was "no electricity, no running water, no sewer service," he said. "It wasn't practical to stay. It was miserable."

Bernard Blunt's family evacuated the day before the hurricane hit. He stayed behind to watch the house. But after the levees broke, water filled his home, 36 inches deep. "It was pretty bad," he said. "I went into survival mode."

Blunt had no contact with his family and wasn't sure of their whereabouts. But just before he boarded the plane for Salt Lake City on Sunday, he received good news — his family is safe and sound, in Dallas.

Reynord Cornelius, an Air Force veteran and a former long-haul trucker who has been through Utah before, said he was happy to come to Salt Lake City. But he wished he didn't have to go.

"Leaving the city I was born in under these circumstances . . . is just horrible," said Cornelius, who has been separated from his two sisters, brother and father and has no idea where they are. "I can't even describe to you how horrible this thing was."

Approximately 600 evacuees have made their way to Utah in three waves, one Saturday evening, one Sunday morning and another late Sunday night. The Utah Air National Guard expects more will be coming over the next week, perhaps as many as two flights a day for the next five days.

By that time, those running the airport operations expect few glitches in the process.

"The first time was a little shaky getting through it. But by 6 o'clock this morning, we had it down to a science," said Greg Stewart with the Utah Air Guard Fire Department.

Firefighters help transport the non-ambulatory passengers off the plane into a temporary triage center set up inside the fire station. There, medical personnel screen the evacuees for health problems and determine who needs more focused medical treatment. A total of 15 passengers have been taken to area hospitals by Sunday afternoon.

In addition to people, pets also began arriving on flights early Sunday, including a small dog wrapped like a baby with a pacifier in its mouth, perhaps in fear it would not be allowed on board, and a large Rottweiler.