Posted on 09/23/2005 4:16:14 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
Authorities set up shelters as Mexicans living in Texas' Gulf Coast rush home
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - Hundreds of Mexicans living along the Texas Gulf Coast were rushing home Thursday to avoid Hurricane Rita while authorities in northern Mexico readied shelters and prepared for heavy rains.
In Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, Mexican families coming from Houston, Galveston, South Padre Island, Corpus Christi and Pasadena waited in long lines to purchase a government temporary import permit for their cars.
Thousands of Mexicans live and work in Texas, but still have family — or even second homes — in Mexico. With Rita bearing down on the Gulf Coast, many felt it was time to go home, at least for a week or so.
Moises Ramirez was one of hundreds crossing into Mexico on Thursday.
A carpenter and homeowner from Pasadena, he left behind his job and house to stay with his parents in Monclova, 120 miles southwest of Laredo.
Traveling with six other family members, Ramirez said he worried what he would have to come back to, but he wasn't ready to risk staying in the path of the storm.
"What happened in New Orleans could also happen there," he said, referring to Texas.
Nuevo Laredo authorities said families crossing from Texas started arriving to the border city late Wednesday and by Thursday morning more than 1,000 people had crossed into Mexico.
The influx of Mexicans fleeing the Texas Gulf Coast was expected to increase in the coming hours and authorities were adding more customs agents and personnel at the government import permit office along the Mexican border with Texas.
The Mexican government also announced that it was shifting its Houston consulate from a high-risk neighborhood to a temporary office at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Houston.
Nuevo Leon Tourism Secretary Jorge Cantu said hotels in Monterrey have agreed to lower room rates by 20 percent to 30 percent for anyone from the Texas Gulf Coast wanting to take shelter in this city 220 miles south of Laredo.
What? I thought the signs at the border were only One Way. Now, if we can only build that fence quickly enough to keep those few from crossing back.
quick somebody lock the door!
LOL! You read my mind.
Well, that's one good thing about this hurricane that nobody expected.... Maybe they should try fake evacuation annoncements in other border states....
Is the Border Patrol stamping their hands so they can return with ease?
I would far more interested to see the headline say 'hundreds of thousands' ...
But I guess it's a start.
Hundreds huh? I'll bet they found out what it was like to be heading the wrong way down a one way street.
Quick, after they are gone, lock the gate!
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