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Locals hit stores, evacuees hit hotels
Published September 11, 2008
SEGUIN — In Seguin Wednesday, there was no room at the inn and food and water were flying off the store shelves.
Locals preparing for what state officials said could be a direct hit by Hurricane Ike were buying up food, batteries, canned goods and gasoline in advance of what may prove to be a rough weekend here in Guadalupe County.
State disaster preparedness officials said Ike, which trashed Cuba on Monday and Tuesday, seemed headed on a course that could take it into the coastal bend region of Texas in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday.
Various forecast models predict tropical storm winds in excess of 60 mph in Seguin and Guadalupe County and up to six or eight inches of tropical rain in a few hours — enough to cause localized flash flooding.
Special needs evacuees were being flown, bused or taken inland by ambulance and mandatory evacuations were called in parts of Brazoria County and other coastal counties.
The Texas Department of Transportation ordered that the northbound shoulder of Interstate 37 out of Corpus Christi be opened as an additional “evaculane,” and made preparations to open I-37 to “contraflow” traffic at 7 a.m. today.
At H-E-B here in Seguin Wednesday, Manager Danny Crowson said things were really moving out the door.
“It’s looking like a busy Saturday here right now,” Crowson said just before lunch time. “Water, canned meats, batteries, boxed dinners and anything that doesn’t require refrigeration are moving. We’re selling lots of ice.”
Unlike in 2005, when Interstate 10 “contraflow” traffic from the Houston area was dumped onto Seguin city streets, Crowson said he wasn’t seeing too many out-of-towners yet.
“Actually, we had a gentleman in here yesterday from Corpus Christi,” Crowson said. “He was up here calling on doctors, and his wife called and gave him a list of similar things to buy up here because they were already out in stores down there.”
Over at Home Depot, Assistant Store Manager Sarah Felty reported Wednesday she was long out of emergency power equipment.
“We don’t have any generators,” she said. “I’m selling lots of plywood, nails, hammers, trash bags, rubber boots, tie downs, rope, flashlights, batteries, rakes, trash cans and water. We’ve pulled all these items up front so people can get to them easily and get out of the store.”
Assistant Manager Louis Tuttle said the store called for and received two semi-truck loads of plywood Wednesday and was struggling to get additional generators.
“We hope we’ll have some (Thursday,)” Tuttle said. “We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for our customers.”
One of those customers was Juan Flores of Luling, who works for Oakwood Nursing and Rehabilitation.
He was picking up dozens of flashlights, gas cans and sheets of plywood to cover the windows at the nursing facility that seemed most at-risk of wind damage. Friday, he said, he hoped to take similar measures to protect his home.
“I’m getting ready for the storm just in case,” Flores said. “It looks like it’s getting stronger and like it could be coming here.”
Ronnie Yeckel, who lives on Lake McQueeney, was buying flashlights and other items she thought she might need if things got stormy Saturday.
“I don’t know what will happen,” Yeckel said. “We’re ready for anything except a flood. I just hope that doesn’t happen.”
If it does, Yeckel said she was willing to accept it — and would gladly face the storm if she knew it would leave League City unharmed.
“My daughter lives there, and I’d much rather this storm come to me than to my grandbabies,” she said.
Home Depot clerk Ella Mae Matthews grew up in Seguin, and said she couldn’t remember this much talk in advance of a storm.
She hasn’t had the opportunity to make any preparations at home, she said.
“I got worried when we ran out of generators,” she said. “When I saw even the newsman on TV needed a generator, that tells you all you need to know.”
Law enforcement ready
At the Seguin Police Department, Detective Lt. Johnny San Miguel said his department’s command staff was monitoring the weather situation and making preparations similar to those being made by the general public.
“We’re just getting ready,” San Miguel said, recalling his department’s role in 2005. “Our (information technology) guy is making sure the city’s Emergency Operations Center is ready if we need it. We’re getting Gatorade and other things ready to drink for the troops if we deploy them, and we’re preparing to have staff spend the night here if needed.”
Over at the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office, Arnold Zwicke said his agency was eyeing the storm and considering its possible local ramifications.
Over at Jud’s Food Store on I-10 at State Highway 123 Bypass, owner Larry Gerosa said he was telling his customers and his employees to top up their tanks and be ready to hunker down for a bit of wind and rain.
“We’re telling everybody to top up and get ready,” Gerosa said. “We have plenty of storage, but we don’t know what’s going to happen with tankers getting to us. I’m telling everyone I can to top off, just in case.”
Gerosa said he’d ordered in extra sundries to help locals or anyone who comes in off the Interstate get through the storm.
“We’re trying to stay ahead,” he said. “We have extra water and every kind of supply we can get. It’s getting pretty tough right now.”
Hotels see brisk business
Over at La Quinta Inn on State Highway 46, Innkeeper Dan Henry said his phones have been ringing for days.
“It’s been busy,” Henry said. “We’ve been booked up for about four days. The people from Louisiana, they got on the phone early and booked their rooms.”
As Ike’s sights have shifted southward along the Texas coast, Henry said Louisiana residents have been calling in and cancelling their reservations. Those cancellations have been more than offset by coastal bend residents calling and looking for rooms. Henry had several rooms reserved for entertainers taking part in the Roundup Cowboy Gathering.
“They cancelled the event, saying they didn’t want to take rooms from hurricane evacuees, which I think was big of them to do,” Henry said. “We’ll rent those rooms right away.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Henry said, has said it would reimburse mandated evacuees for rooms up to the government’s per diem rate. La Quinta, he said, would help with the rest of the cost.
“If you show a photo ID with an address from an evacuation area, we’re offering a 20 percent discount to help soften the load,” Henry said.
Henry said his first wish would be that he didn’t have to help anybody at all.
“If it peters out in the middle of the gulf, which I wish it would do, we’ll just sit back here and enjoy a quiet weekend,” Henry said. “We’d be happy not to make any money from a situation like this.”
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