AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) -- 20 years ago Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans, Louisiana, displacing residents and causing damage throughout the city. In response the City of Amarillo opened the Civic Center Complex as a shelter for evacuees.

Amarillo Civic Center Complex General Manager Bo Fowlkes had been with the city for six years at that time and remembers being notified that Amarillo would be a shelter.

"The first night that we received a plane load, had about 150 evacuees on it, and we got them all situated and bedded down and fed, and it was a 24 hour operation for about two weeks," said Fowlkes. "We kept expecting more plane loads. We kept getting calls that we were going to get more people, and the mayor, I believe, was even reaching out downstate, saying Amarillo

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