Horizon

Evacuation Stories

My parents arrived from their home near Port Arthur at five o'clock this afternoon. They'd spent twenty-five hours on the road between there and Austin, most of which was driving north to Nacogdoches. I made a shorter trip of thirteen and a half hours yesterday morning, twelve hours of which covered the 170 miles from Houston to Austin. Many more of my friends are from Houston or the Port Arthur area, and each had their own ordeal and worries.

Here are a few of their evacuation stories.

Some of the largest imprompu tent cites along I-45 were at gas stations. The pumps were empty, but people had parked there to sleep in the hope that a tanker would arrive in the morning.

On TX 21 west of the I-45 intersection, a woman was driving east. She lived in the area and was offering her house to anyone who was stranded.

A friend was working back roads between Houston and Austin, along with his wife and two small children. His son managed to throw up all over himself in the heat, so they stopped at the next gas station. He stripped his son naked, hosed him off with the water hose at the air compressor, and nobody even looked twice.

My parents pulled over to park and sleep next to a pickup on US-92. After they turned off their cars, two women sat up from the bed of the pickup, asking if they needed help or to use a phone. They'd pulled over to sleep as well.

The things people choose to evacuate amaze me, though they often make sense if you think about it. I passed a number of horses and deep freezers. My parents saw entire households of stuff, including lawn furniture and propane grills. My fellow evacuees might have found my pickup bed full of family history just as odd, though.

At one gas station, my parents observed a heated exchange between a man and his wife at the pump. They then saw another man intervene, give the couple five dollars to continue filling their tank, and refuse to let them return it.

Many rural towns really helped the evacuees tremendously. The entire town of Belleville seemed to be helping to direct traffic, though in San Augustine the residents looked more like a crowd watching a parade. I found gas in Industry (pop. 302), at the grocery/feed store/gas station. Lines were long, but all the clerks had turned out and were courteous and helpful. They'd even turned on the Auto-Fry, so I walked out with some hot breakfast. Corn dogs and chicken strips go better at 9:30 AM than you'd think.

An acquaintance does IT work for a mid-sized tech firm in Houston. At the last minute, their partner in Kansas City refused to allow them to back up their databases onto their servers. Today he got a call from a coworker: "Don't tell anyone because I'll probably get fired, but I got a buddy who runs an adult site to store them on his servers."

At the intersection of I-45 and TX 21, there were four gas stations still in business. On both the eastbound and westbound shoulders, cars were parked in lines for over a mile. Alongside the cars were people standing. At first my parents assumed they were in line for a bathroom or some food. Then they noticed that they were all carrying empty containers.

One sound I'll never forget is the frogs along F.M. 529. I was in a long line of stop-and-go traffic heading downhill to a creek west of Belleville. I noticed the frogs because I could hear them. I had my engine off and was coasting down hill on brakes alone. Everyone else on the quarter-mile slope was doing the same.

When traffic really stops, people get out to stretch their legs. The back roads I chose had nothing on the official evacuation routes, however. My parents actually people firing up their grills to cook meals alongside the road.

I had more luck on the back roads than on the highways. At first I thought this was a case of the have-maps versus the have-nots, until I talked to a friend from Houston. She drove south-west of the city for a while, then randomly tried any state highway or farm road that led north or west until she got to Austin. Many dead ends and turnarounds, but no waiting in traffic.

Posted by Ben Brumfield at September 23, 2005 08:29 PM