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Sep 13, 2008 7:38 pm US/Central
Evacuees Anxiously Await To Hear Info From Home
Compiled From Staff Reports
NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter flies over flooded Bolivar Peninsula in Texas as a result of Hurricane Ike.
Pool photo by Melanie Burford/The Dallas Morning News
It was an anxious time for thousands of evacuees in North Texas, many who followed the storm's progress closely on television.
The DFW Ramada Inn South housed about 70 rooms of people from the Galveston and Houston area.
Whiling away the hours can be hard, especially knowing some family members stayed behind to protect their homes. Some of the people have been fortunate and have been able to contact all but one family member. But not every evacuee can say that.
Adella Jiminez broke down with worry as she spoke with CBS 11 News crews at the Dallas Convention Center. More than 1,400 people shared similar anxieties. Stores have donated televisions and phone companies offered free air minutes to try to let evacuees stay in touch. Even the youngest eyes were glued to the sets.
LaDawn Johnson took shelter in Tarrant County. She told Mayor Mike Moncrief the news she heard from home. "We live on the second floor, and it caved in," she said. "I just didn't think I'd lose everything."
Her home is gone. Now they're here with their four-year old and nowhere to go.
"She doesn't understand. She thinks our house is broken. My husband and I know. It hit me pretty hard when we found out this morning," Johnson said. "But I'm glad we're blessed we got out with our lives."
Her husband is a welder, and the tools of his trade are buried somewhere in the rubble of their house.
"My husband wants to go back to go back because all his tools are there and he wants to see if he can salvage something," she said. "But from what our neighbors say, there's like bricks -- our building is brick -- there's like bricks everywhere. We won't be able to salvage anything."
"I don't know what we're going to do," she said. "All we can do is depend on God. We know He'll see us through."
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