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Dallas and Fort Worth See Influx of Evacuees DALLAS, TX (KERA) - North Texas is ready for 288 busloads of Hurricane Ike evacuees from the Houston area. Hundreds more are coming by car to stay with family, friends or in hotels, out of harm's way.

Dallas Public Information director Frank Librio calculates that 288 buses is about 10,000 evacuees, and the Dallas Convention Center has expanded its evacuee capacity.

Librio: We've added another 450 spaces or cots, so now we'll be able to house up to 1,450 people.

Overflow will go to a number of other Dallas County Shelters. Denton County is also opening four shelters. Fort Worth/Tarrant County are operating eight shelters and single shelters are open in Acton and Weatherford. Tarrant County's Marc Flake says they've been advised by the state that Tarrant County will take one third of the 288 buses arriving from the Houston area. They're also adding shelter beds.

Flake: We started out with about 500, we've added another 300 this morning and we expect to add another 1,500 by the end of the day.

The Red Cross is expecting at least 17,000 evacuees arriving in North Texas to wait out the storm that's forecast to slam the Texas coastline Saturday morning.

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