They sat with their heads in their hands, faces screwed into expressions of misery, confusion - and relief. Some were shirtless, others shoeless. Many were still dripping wet. Others were so old, or frail, or shell-shocked that they simply lay on the road, staring out from hollow eyes in utter bewilderment.
They made a wretched, war-like scene. But if these 1,000-odd refugees had anything left to celebrate, it was that they were here, alive and safe.
'This is where our biggest nightmare ends and our next biggest nightmare begins,' said William Autry, 73, who was trapped in water up to his shoulders at his home on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain before a rescue boat brought him here.
Now he sits in the middle of Highway 10, once a bustling New Orleans commuter route and now the hub of the search and rescue operation.
More people are being evacuated here from flood-stricken hospitals and to the Pontchartrain road bridge, where parish officials say a 'sea of humanity' is waiting for help.
Helicopters are landing so frequently they are forming noisy traffic jams in the sky. They land only briefly to unload their weak and bedraggled passengers before lifting off again. The crowds are triaged and the sick and wounded placed on stretchers and hooked up to drips and oxygen.