City | State
Houstonians do ‘neighborly and human thing’ for families
Louisiana residents head for Texas as hurricane hits coast.
The imminent arrival of Hurricane Ida sent Louisiana residents scrambling for shelter in Texas ahead of a life-threatening storm surge.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation reported heavy congestion clogging Interstate 10 Saturday as motorists fled evacuation zones along the Gulf Coast. Countless residents took refuge in Houston as they waited to hear how their homes weathered the storm.
Louisiana resident Dugue Daigle and his family began driving at 4 a.m. Saturday to beat traffic after evacuating their home in Covington, north of Lake Pontchartrain. The 45-yearold business owner planned to ride out the hurricane at a Residence Inn in Pasadena with his wife and 10-year-old son.
Sixteen years ago, Daigle’s home was damaged by a falling pine tree and was without power for weeks following Hurricane Katrina. His wife’s family lost everything. This time, they decided they didn’t want to worry about “the stresses of staying behind.”
While their home was not in a mandatory evacuation zone, the Daigles gathered up their photo albums, a few days’ worth of clothing, and drove west. They planned to stay in their Houston hotel for at least two nights.
“Everybody has their own threshold of what they are willing to deal with,” he said. “Different danger levels.”
Others who waited until Saturday afternoon to evac
uate had a different experience on the ride out. Rebecca Barbier, of Spring Branch, was visiting New Orleans and had to cut the trip short when they heard the hurricane became a Category 4. For most of the drive, Barbier and her husband were stuck in standstill traffic and when there was movement, it wasn’t any faster than 19 mph.
She began to get nervous when she saw they only had three gallons of gas left and fueling station after fueling station was out of gas. They had to take a slight detour to Lake Charles to fill up.
She couldn’t help but think about how a similar situation played out in 2005 when Houstonians evacuated for Hurricane Rita.
“You would think the state governments and federal emergency management systems would have some sort of evacuation plan,” Barbier said. “People shouldn’t be in fear, stranded on the roads.”
Northeast of Houston, on a 21-acre farm on the Texas-Louisiana border, Kristin and Roy Zirpoli were preparing Saturday night for the arrival of several Louisiana evacuees. The couple opened their Kirbyville farm to anyone seeking shelter, provided, as Roy said, they don’t mind “boondocking for a bit.”
Word of their willingness to host quickly spread on Facebook through the New Orleans-based nonprofit Cajun Navy Relief, and within hours they had their first takers. Two evacuated families — one from Baton Rouge, the other from Alexandria — had arrived to the wooded property in their RVs. The Zirpolis set up tents for a third family coming from New Orleans.
“It is only the neighborly and human thing to do,” Roy said.
Besides offering up their homes, some Houstonians are also collecting supplies for evacuees who hastily had to get to the Bayou City. Shelley Kutsch — who owns her own gym in the Rice Military Area, Shredded by Shelley — is asking her clients and friends to help her gather air matresses, sleeping bags, sheets and other items for evacuees from Louisiana.
She pulled together similar efforts during Harvey and Katrina. She also remembers when her friends in New Orleans offered her a place to stay during the winter freeze.
“That’s what we do in Houston. When there is a disaster, we help people,” Kutsch said. “Everyone in here kind of just knows someone from Louisiana … they’re our neighbors.”
Both Mattress Mack and Lakewood Church opened their doors to evacuees in need.
Umme Salma, 38, left New Orleans with her husband and three children about 2:30 p.m. Saturday and didn’t make it to her brother-in-law’s house in Katy until 6 a.m. Sunday.
Despite her exhaustion, the trip was worth it for Salma, who remembers having to shelter at the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. She considered hunkering down for Ida at home, but decided she wasn’t keen on reliving that experience.
“I’m tired and stressed out, but I’m just happy that we got out. We’re OK, and that’s what matters,” Salma said.
Salma and her family are staying with Md Monirul Islam, a mechanical engineer who invited relatives in New Orleans to ride out the storm with him before extending that invitation to their friends and family as well.
Islam, 35, said he has about 30 people staying at his home in Katy now. The women and children sleep in the house’s four bedrooms, while the men are sleeping on the floor in the game room.
“I heard the news and told them it seemed risky to stay there and they were welcome at my house,” Islam said. “I’m really proud to help and support them, me and my wife.”
The guests have been a joy to have around, Islam said.
“The kids are playing upstairs and downstairs, the children are making it a lively house,” said Islam, who has a 3-year-old daughter and also serves as president of the nonprofit Projects For Humanity.