My brother asked me to post this for him:
Today I finally heard from Anthony and Ida . They are in the Dallas County Jail (!) but that was because everyone else from Beaumont was as well. Anthony had a tale to tell. I can relate most of it here, but he kept a journal of his trip with more details.
Thursday afternoon in Beaumont they drove their car to South Park Elementary and got on an evac bus heading to Lufkin; there was just no way their car could make the trip to Houston under these conditions. It was a commandeered school bus, one of thirty making up a government-organized caravan of largely elderly passengers and folks with young children. Many of them were lower-income, but this was by no means a caravan of hoodlums. They went up US 69 towards Lufkin and it was bumper-to-bumper the entire route. After fifteen hours with one rest stop and no food or water or A/C on-board, they reached Lufkin at 8 AM Friday morning, where they were allowed to get out. One woman was hit by a car as she crossed the street to go to the store; on another bus, a child had to be delivered en route. Authorities instructed the refugees to move on, as Lufkin no longer had additional shelter capacity.
The caravan moved north to Nacogdoches, where they had their first hostile encounter with law enforcement. The buses had stopped at a convenience store on the outside of town, and the shopkeeper was convinced that the refugees were shoplifting. Nacogdoches PD rolled up with ten (10) squad cars, and ordered all the evacuees to return to the buses and move on (or else). It was just as well, as there was no gas to be had there. The caravan moved north in search of some place with gas and/or shelter.
As Friday evening rolled in, the outer bands of the storm began to overtake the buses. San Augustine offered temporary shelter, where Anthony and Ida were allowed to shower and eat. But the buses had refueled and there was no permanent shelter, so they were all forced to move on, without any passenger having any clue as to their final destination (nor, apparently, did the drivers).
Kilgore had no available shelter space. Longview was the scene of the caravan’s second hostile encounter with law enforcement The caravan was meet at the city limits by armed police, who with weapons drawn told the drivers that they were not to stop anywhere within the city of Longview. The caravan continued until they reached Canton, off of Interstate 20, where they were allowed to stop at the Civic Center and off-load. Unfortunately, many of the cots were already filled with Katrina refugees and earlier Rita arrivals; Ida and Anthony were forced to sleep on a concrete floor. The entire place was filled with unruly children who could not be made to settle down at night.
The group spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Canton, where they were treated (according to Anthony) as second-class citizens and with only marginal courtesy. On Tuesday the group was loaded onto charter buses and sent to Dallas, where they are currently being housed at the Dallas County Jail. No plans at this point have been made for their further progress.
Anthony is very bitter about the entire process. While he admits there was no way they could’ve stayed in Beaumont, he and many others are incensed at the shoddy treatment they faced at the hands of those people who were supposed to be helping them.
