Loaded down with the weight of a few belongings, the burdens of the lives they put on hold and harrowing tales of survival, more than 152 New Orleans evacuees streamed through a local processing center Wednesday and made their way to area hotels.

An additional 180 evacuees arrived Wednesday evening, bringing the day’s total to 332.

It didn’t take long for many evacuees — some of whom were plucked from their homes and rescued from canoes — to fall in love with Columbia. After all, some had stayed home during and after the hurricane to avoid the conditions at communal shelters.

“When we told them they were going to hotels, they were so relieved,” said Mayor Bob Coble.

A sign at the entrance to the former Naval Reserve building on Pickens Street read “You are welcome here with us.”

Harold Augustine, a 57-year-old construction worker on the first planeload of evacuees, appreciated the reception.

“I ain’t never been welcomed like this before,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve been welcomed with open arms.”

Initially, officials had to send volunteers home. Some 200 people had arrived for training as family hosts and “shepherds” to guide people through the process. But with only 27 evacuees set to arrive on the first plane, many were asked to head home but remain on standby.

“We’re overwhelmed with goodness,” said Sam Tenenbaum, who helped coordinate operations at the processing center.

The plane with 180 evacuees landed Wednesday night, but they were taken to local hotels, with plans to process them today. Also on board were a python, four cats and a dog.

More evacuees are expected to arrive today. It was unclear how many and when.

Evacuees from the first plane to arrive walked off a Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority bus at the processing center to a crush of television cameras and applause from volunteers lined up to receive them.

Coble made the trip from the airport with them. As they arrived, they received flowers donated by a local florist.

On the bus was one group of 16 evacuees who spent up to a week together, trapped in the second floor of a New Orleans elementary school. Although the group had food and water in the school, they decided to leave after the call for a mandatory evacuation. They were rescued by boat from the school Tuesday and later transported to the airport.

Carrie Morgan-Handy, 57, said the group bonded during their ordeal.

Some said they did not find out until they boarded the plane that they were headed to Columbia. But none seemed to be complaining.

“It’s beautiful,” Morgan-Handy said.

Early on, local officials dealt with what the mayor called “a major wrinkle.”

Federal officials said up to 60 people on the first flight into town, initially scheduled for 11:50 a.m., would need wheelchairs. The Naval Reserve building, the site of the processing center, did not have wheelchair ramps and there were no wheelchairs in the building.

Coble and Anita Floyd of the United Way got on the phone with Palmetto Health, Lexington Medical Center, the S.C. Council on Aging and Hawthorne Medical requesting wheelchairs. By noon, some 100 wheelchairs had arrived.

Workers with USC’s carpentry department built two wheelchair ramps, one for the front entrance and one in the back of the building, within a few hours.

Only one person on the first flight, which wound up arriving at Columbia Metropolitan Airport just before 1 p.m. with 27 people aboard, actually needed a wheelchair. But many of the wheelchairs were put into service later in the evening.

Gov. Mark Sanford, who briefly toured the processing center after the first group arrived, was impressed with the effort.

“This is just uplifting what people have come here to do,” Sanford said. “Uplifting in the number of people who have come in to the number of different state and local governments who have worked well together.

“What you’re struck with is there is excess capacity to handle many more people.”

Reach Drake at (803) 771-8692 or jdrake@thestate.com. Staff writer Tim Flach contributed.