Published: September 16, 2008 09:43 am      

Evacuees from near and far leave Rusk for Jacksonville

By Raymond Billy

rbilly@jacksonvilleprogress.com

As Hurricane Ike approached the Texas Gulf coast, many residents evacuated north, only to find they hadn’t gone far enough. Many people from the coast thought Cherokee County would be a safe evacuation destination, choosing to wait out the storm in cities like Alto and Rusk.

But, as power and water began to run out in those cities, Jacksonville became the destination for many.

Sue Hines, front office manager at Best Western Executive Inn in Jacksonville, said her phone has been ringing off the hook for the last several days.

“All of our rooms are booked up with people from Houston and Beaumont and we have waiting lists. Our waiting list is 200 people long,” she said. Hines suggested those evacuees could be waiting for a long time.

“We’ve got people that are extending their stay because they don’t know when they’re going to get home — they don’t know if they have a home to go to,” she said.

Rhonda Bourgeois evacuated to Jacksonville with her husband, Russell, and two other family members. They first settled in Rusk on Thursday, but on Saturday, conditions there began to resemble those at their home in Grove.

“We actually just came to Jacksonville [Sunday],” Bourgeois said, as she and her husband waited for a room at Best Western. “We were at the Weston Inn in Rusk and we lost power and water there [Saturday]. They don’t see it being restored for a week.”

A little farther down South Jackson Street at Holiday In Express, Oscar Hereira had to camp out in the hotel’s lobby to ensure he would get the first room that became available there, since its management decided not to establish a waiting list. Hereira was situated comfortably in a Rusk hotel, but had to evacuate from that location Sunday morning.

“I left Beaumont Friday and I stayed in Rusk Friday and Saturday and the hotel where I was lost power Saturday and lost water [Sunday] morning, so I had to check out and come over here and wait for a room here,” he said.

D.J. Johnson, general manager at Holiday Inn in Jacksonville, said his lobby was full of people in Hereira’s situation Saturday.

“We had six people waiting for rooms in the middle of the night (Saturday)” he said. Johnson said each of his hotel’s 48 rooms were occupied over the weekend. On a typical day, there are usually as many as 13 vacancies, he said.

As evacuees sought temporary quarters in Jacksonville, they were forced to compete for lodging with area residents who sought refuge from their powerless homes.

Chin Patel, owner/manager at Pine Lodge in Jacksonville, said 30 percent of his current tenants are from Jacksonville and Rusk. He said the only reason all of his rooms haven’t been booked is because parts of his property are without power.

“We have a lot of people waiting to get a room, but we can’t accept them because the southern end of our building has no electricity,” he said. “I feel bad having to turn so many people away, but a lot of them are bringing small children with them and we don’t want to have them here if we can’t offer them the full range of services.”

Talisa Comealex of Port Bolivar said the long wait for lodging has compounded the sleeplessness she and her family have experienced due to Hurricane Ike.

“I think my home is still standing, but my neighbor and my son’s house is gone,” she said. “We’re coping, but we’re just hoping to get a room. If we don’t get one, we don’t know what we’ll do.”