The local office of emergency preparedness said the shelter at Southern University in Shreveport was closed and the 20 remaining evacuees were moved to Hirsch Coliseum.

There are now approximately 10,000 evacuees in shelters in Shreveport and Bossier City, down from a high of 13,000.

Buses left today to carry evacuees back to St. Landry Parish, said Sandy Davis, head of the local Office of Emergency Preparedness.

Other buses left Wednesday night for Lafayette, Calcasieu, Acadia and Jefferson Davis parishes.

Most of the evacuees who are still here are from Orleans and Jefferson parishes. Much of those areas are without utility services because of hurricane damage.

Authorities in those parishes have lifted checkpoints. Thousands of people with their own transportation have returned home but local government officials don't want to send more people in until basic services are restored.

Davis said he believes the Red Cross shelter at LSUS will close by Saturday and he doubts there will be more than one shelter open by the end of the weekend as people from New Orleans head home.

"What we start looking at, at this point, is how can local social services and faith-based community start to help absorb those folks into our population temporarily," Davis said. "We're looking at temporarily housing (and) apartments. We're not talking about trailers. This is not a FEMA deal; it's a local effort."

Police today provided more details about a fight Wednesday night at the state shelter on Jewella Avenue in southwest Shreveport.

It started with an altercation between an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old, Shreveport Police Chief Henry Whitehorn said. A boy stabbed a girl with a plastic fork, the mothers got involved and some other adults then waded into the mess, Whitehorn said.

One of the families involved in the incident was moved to another shelter.