They were tired. They were hot. All they could think about was home. Late Saturday night, 3,400 evacuees began returning to Galveston on city-chartered buses.
Most had spent at least 12 hours without air conditioning fleeing Hurricane Rita, which officials had feared would hit Galveston with Category 4 or 5 hurricane winds. The storm weakened to a Category 3 late Friday before making landfall just north of the island near the Louisiana and Texas border.
Island resident Steve Poirier said his evacuation bus ride lasted 28 hours with just two stops. At one stop, he said, the employees of a fast food restaurant wouldn’t allow the evacuees inside.
Riders, including aged woman, were forced to use the bathroom on the ground, Poirier said. Two male passengers had to support the woman, he said.
“Basically we were nomads,” he said. “We drove for hours and hours.”
Most Galveston buses went to Huntsville, but Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said some shelters there filled up earlier than expected, forcing them back on the road.
Proirer’s bus was one of those. It returned late Saturday after an overnight stay in Humble. The bulk of the evacuees came back Sunday morning and afternoon.
Waiting for rides home, they sat on suitcases and beside bags of water and blankets in the parking lot of the Island Community Center, which served as a hub for the city-run evacuation.
Most came in from Huntsville, where they were sheltered in prison churches, high schools and civic centers. They spent their days watching the weather on TV and playing dominoes or cards.
Dianna Jamez and her family sat through a 14-hour bus ride out of Galveston.
Their driver stopped at a strip club so passengers could use the restroom, she said, and had to pull over three times for ambulances to pick up riders that fainted.
“All you could hear was people arguing all the time,” said her daughter Desarae Victor, 14.
But not everything was a nightmare.
Jamez’ son Martin Jamez celebrated his 13th birthday at their Huntsville shelter. The staff brought in balloons and evacuees sang “Happy Birthday.”
Thomas, who was greeting returning evacuees Sunday, called the overall effort successful, but said there was room for improvement.
“From the Galveston city end, the plan worked very well,” she said.
“We need to work out some stumbling blocks with the state as far as what happens to people once they get to a place like Huntsville and beyond.”
