The ordeal: They lived in or near New Orleans, the city famed for jazz, Mardi Gras and letting "the good times roll". Now, having escaped the hell their home became after Hurricane Katrina, they never want to go back.
Survivors evacuated from New Orleans' Superdome in a huge convoy of buses arrived at Houston's Astrodome grateful for their lives but bitter about their ordeal during the storm and what they described as local officials' indifference to their fate.
"Call it biblical. Call it apocalyptic. Whatever you want to call it, take your pick," said Robert Lewis, who became marooned by floodwaters in his downtown New Orleans home where he and others had sought to ride out Hurricane Katrina.
"There were bodies floating past my door," he told reporters, describing how he and other men at his home put children on their shoulders and walked two miles (3.2km) through flooded streets before being rescued by a helicopter.
"We were like on an island. We did the best we could. We were just like zombies walking around at night."
Then came the Superdome, the covered New Orleans football stadium used to shelter some 23,000 people from Katrina before authorities ordered them evacuated as living conditions deteriorated amid fading lights, no water and overflowing toilets. About 4,000 had arrived in Houston by Thursday night.
The Superdome situation, said Mr Lewis, was "extremely chaotic and disorganised. It was a total breakdown. Basically there was nothing. They had to get people out."
Keith Brooks left the Superdome two days after he arrived. "It wasn't fit for a dog in there," he said.
The food was "slop". Officials threw bottles of water for people to catch, he said. He recalled sick, elderly people being ignored and said he saw a 14-year-old girl being raped.
The 40-year-old bin collector said he planned to seek work in Houston and was never going back to New Orleans where he had spent his entire life. "They didn't treat me right in there. They didn't treat nobody right."
Lenwyn Hollins waited out the storm with his wife and three children in their public housing project because going to the Superdome was "like an insult to us. I've lost all trust in New Orleans," he said.
Henry Mackels from Chalmette, Louisiana, just outside New Orleans, stayed with his wife and son and several hundred others at the local high school as Hurricane Katrina blasted the US Gulf Coast on Monday with 225km/h (140mph) winds and a 9m (30ft) storm surge that may have killed thousands.
Officials at the shelter "totally let us down", he told reporters at the Astrodome.
The floors were covered in dog and cat waste and there was nothing to eat or drink, he said, adding; "We were left to starve."
Mr Mackels said he and other men had to find boats on dry ground and loot grocery and convenience stores to get food and drink to the hundreds in the high school.
"There were people passing out left and right. We had to [ loot]. I had no choice," he said.
His wife, Veronica, said guards at the shelter "sat there and waited for us to die".