Bessie Heights
LA MARQUE, Texas – They set up camp at the boarded-up Shell station on Interstate 45 on Saturday afternoon, dozens of them, an unlikely community of outsiders desperate to return home to storm-ravaged Galveston, Omega Bay, Tiki Island, Jamaica Beach.
Stranded, instead, in a parking lot on the perimeter set up by the police – while helicopters and ambulances screamed past them toward the devastation left behind by Hurricane Ike.
Wondering if their homes were still standing, or family still alive. Unable to pay for another night's hotel, or another tank of gas to return to wherever it was they sheltered while the storm roared through the night.
"Next time I'm staying, if they won't let you back in," said Patrick Christensen, 32, of Bayou Vista, a small community next to the causeway near Galveston. "Unless it's a Category 5, I'm there."
Thousands of others, like Mr. Christensen, had evacuated from the Texas coast after warnings from officials. On Saturday, thinking they'd be able to return home, they drove down I-45, only to be turned away 15 miles from Galveston Island.
And so they stopped at the Shell station and settled in for the night, figuring that if you have nowhere to go, it's probably best to stay where you are.
"They told me an hour, then they told me two hours, and now they're saying maybe Tuesday," said James Dillmon, 49, a Galveston welder.
He had left Friday with his bass guitar, his Harley Davidson, his generator, his welder, his dog, Bandit, and "these pants I'm wearing. And that's it."
"At least everybody's alive," he said cheerfully. "They'll make arrangements to get you out, but they won't make arrangements to get you back."
[snipped some of the story out & posted parts I hadn't seen yet]
I don't know how I feel about this aspect to the story. On one hand, it either is or isn't safe to return, and these people apparently just blindly assumed it would be fine and started heading for home with no backup plan. I haven o doubt that every radio is blaring WAIT, DON'T COME BACK YET PLEASE. On the other hand, they shouldn't keep people from their own property one minute longer than necessary. Services or not. I'd rather camp out in my own wrecked front yard than live in my car at some shell station 15 miles away.
Bessie Heights
Maybe communities should build San Luis bunkers (on their own dime) for after the storm. That way people could get back home near their property but still have a safe place to retreat. They could have rotations where they could be dropped off for awhile during the day to do what they need to do, even if it’s standing on just ground and planning how to rebuild. JAT
Problem is that when they start letting anyone in, there will be looting causing a lot of unneeded stress to the police force that is already working long and hard hours. There will also be injuries to those that are not aware of what the conditions will be like when they get home. They probably hear what they are but don’t realize it until they get there. In other words, some of it is lack of experience of the property owners and that is where the dangers lie.