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Sep 15, 2008 10:32 pm US/Central
Evacuees Stay In North Texas Longer Than Expected
DALLAS (AP/CBS 11 NEWS) ―
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Gov. Rick Perry talks to Hurricane Ike evacuees at the Dallas Convention Center.
KTVT / KTXA
They waited nervously for the storm to arrive. They waited scared for the storm to pass.
Now, nearly 37,000 people are in 295 public shelters, and there is no word on when those living in the most devastated towns, such as Galveston, might return.
Amber Toutcheque and her nieces and nephews moved from a hotel to a Red Cross shelter in Carrollton because they were simply running out of money.
"I'm ready to go back to school. I barely started college all over again and it feels like everything is not going my way," said Toutcheque.
She fled Port Arthur but didn't expect her stay in North Texas to last this long.
The Salvation Army is also hearing similar stories. It opened another shelter in Arlington, anticipating that evacuees checking out of hotels will soon check into a shelter.
"People are getting to the end of their resources," said Pat Patey, Salvation Army. "We've received about a half a dozen calls from people who say, 'I've got another night or two at a motel, but I'm trying to figure out what to do next.'"
From Arlington to Lewisville to the Dallas convention center, evacuees are staying longer than expected.
"It's comfortable," said Sylvia Daw, who evacuated from Beaumont. "I'm ready to go home though. There's nothing like your own bed."
At the Dallas Convention Center, nearly 900 evacuees are waiting patiently for the power to return and the clean up to finish. However, it's becoming more apparent that it take may take weeks before they can go home.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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