Many hurricane evacuees at Greenville's Palmetto Expo Center say the shelter is heaven compared to the hell they left behind, but still, some are itching to get out.

Norman Burch of New Orleans isn't sure whether he arrived with the 118 evacuees Wednesday night or the second crew of 110 on Thursday, but he's ready for a hotel or an apartment.

The people at the Greenville shelter treated him well, giving him clothes and food, Burch said, but it's hard to sleep on the rows and rows of air mattresses.

"It feels like a jail," Burch said.

Others, like Paul Renaud of Biloxi, Miss., just have somewhere else they want to be. For Renaud, who lost his mother, grandmother and three brothers in the hurricane, it's Los Angeles, where his cousins said they could find him construction work.

"If I'd wanted to live in South Carolina, I would've moved to South Carolina," Renaud said. "I don't want to be here. I don't want 300 roommates."

The situation has been different for evacuees landing in Columbia this week. They were sent to area hotels from the time they arrived, an approach officials thought would make evacuees more comfortable, said Columbia Mayor Bob Coble.

"It's the most compassionate method and leads to the greatest rehabilitation," Coble said. "You can't get your life back together if you're in a big sports arena. You just can't. You can't get a good night's sleep, much less anything else."

When Gov. Mark Sanford's wife, Jenny, went aboard one of the planes to tell them where they were staying, the evacuees applauded, Coble said.

Greenville City Manager Jim Bourey said taking all evacuees to one location initially is a more efficient way to make sure they get the services they need.

"How do you get services to people when they're scattered all over the place in hotel rooms?" Bourey said. "How do you get the triage for health services they may need, whether it's mental health or physical health? How do you get social services and the counseling to them?

"How do you get them to places where jobs might be? How do you then collect them all and transport them to different places they need to go?"

"They put people in hotels because they didn't have any place to put them, a convention center," Bourey said.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials arrived Friday to start registering evacuees for federal housing assistance so they can move into an apartment or hotel, here or elsewhere, Bourey said.

Greenville doesn't expect any more planes of Gulf Coast residents until next week, if they come at all, Bourey said.

Future planes probably would bring evacuees from other shelters, Bourey said.

Coble said the decision in Columbia to use hotels came after officials decided during planning "to throw the rule book away."

"Let's put ourselves in the shoes of these people," he said. "If you had been through all they had been through, you would want to be in your own room. That would be more important to you than anything else in the world.

"They were able to say things like they had gotten their dignity back. They feel as though they could get a good night's sleep, that they had some privacy."

City and nonprofit officials organizing the evacuees' care have worked through several challenges with the hotels, Coble said, including transportation. The city rerouted its trolleys to serve the hotels. They deliver the evacuees from the center that welcomes them and also take them to some stores.

Coble said other cities housing the evacuees should try using hotels.

"If you think about it, it's the most efficient delivery of services that are already there," he said.

He said the city has begun talks with federal officials about more long-term housing for the survivors.

Ike McLeese, president of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce who also heads the efforts at housing evacuees who come to Columbia, said the decision to choose hotel rooms over shelters was deliberate.

McLeese said officials have a 30-day contract with the hotels. During that time period, he said, officials will evaluate the situation and decide whether to extend the contract or move them to more permanent housing.

"Some of them are here for the long haul," he said.

More than 500 rooms have been contracted, he said.

Greenville officials say the Palmetto Expo Center can accommodate about 1,000 evacuees, though they don't expect that many at once, especially as some begin to leave. Working with the Red Cross, the city purchased hundreds of air mattresses that are lined up in an exhibition hall.

FEMA officials came to the Expo Center on Friday to start registering evacuees there for interim housing, Bourey said. Once registered, evacuees are eligible to move to hotels or apartments immediately and can get up to $26,000 to stay for 18 months.

Several apartment complexes already have offered units, Bourey said.

Evacuees don't have to use the assistance to find housing in the Greenville area, he said. They can move anywhere they want.

And plenty of them have other places they want to go. Most didn't know they were coming to Greenville until they boarded a plane in Louisiana, and some didn't plan to leave New Orleans anyway -- they were forced at gunpoint.

But some are concerned about how they will get where they want to go.

Renaud, who wants to get to Los Angeles, is thinking of using a debit card the Red Cross is promising to evacuees to pay for transportation.

Others were making plans to get to the bus station and get out of town. Some got help from service agencies at the Expo Center.

Bourey said evacuees at the Palmetto Expo Center are free to come and go as they please.

"Some people leave and come back," Bourey said. "Some people leave and may not come back. They're not here under duress."

James Sullivan of New Orleans, drinking a cup of coffee in the sunlight Friday morning, said if he had to land somewhere far from home, Greenville was the best place.

"This is a beautiful place and beautiful people," he said. "This is the best place we could have landed."

But Sullivan wants to head west to Monterey, Calif., where his girlfriend's mother lives. He's thinking of taking the bus.

"I have a Social Security check," Sullivan said. "I was going to use it. They said there's FEMA money in there, but I'd have to wait all day and night."

"If I can get to the bus station and get to California, I'll worry about that later."

Not all evacuees who've landed in Greenville want to leave. Raymond Daniels of Jefferson Parish, La., said he has family in Houston but was warming to the idea of starting over here on his own.

Ronald Gray, 42, hasn't ruled out Greenville, either. He brought his cellular phone with him and it's been a lifeline to his wife, a nursing assistant, who is in Baton Rouge with family.

Both are looking for jobs. He'll move to where she is or she'll move where he is as soon as one finds work. That could be here in the Upstate, in Atlanta where he has a twin brother, in Baton Rouge or in Mississippi, where he also has family.

"I'm ready to work," said Gray, who worked for a catering company in New Orleans. "I'm ready to get myself together."

Gray spent three days alone in his attic until the water receded somewhat. He swam from his house in chest deep water amid decomposing bodies and an unbearable stench.

"All I can do is take one day at a time," Gray said.

For now he's found a traveling buddy. Gray and Glenn Thomas, an offshore oil driller, met in a rescue helicopter and stayed together since.

Thomas doesn't know if the company he worked for still has work for him, so he's looking for work here. But like Gray, he's got family in Atlanta, Mississippi and Baton Rouge and if he doesn't find work here and Gray goes elsewhere, he'll travel on with Gray.

"I'm just a little confused right now and trying to make it," Thomas said.

"My car's under water, my house is under water. It's like starting over," Thomas said.

Gray corrected his new friend.