Storm evacuees head to Georgia; more shelters opening

People fleeing Hurricane Gustav continue to arrive from the Gulf Coast, and more emergency shelters will be opening in Georgia.

Rubin Brown with the American Red Cross in Atlanta said a shelter will open by Monday afternoon in Lawrenceville. The Red Cross is contemplating opening shelters in Savannah and Valdosta.

Shelters have already started accepting evacuees in Villa Rica, LaGrange, Columbus, Dalton and Tift County, Brown said.

On Sunday night, weariness and frustration were palpable among dozens of Hurricane Gustav evacuees who had sought shelter in a dimly lit gymnasium in Villa Rica.

By 7 p.m. Sunday, an American Red Cross official said 107 people had entered the Gold Dust Recreation Center since the facility opened that morning as a hurricane shelters activated by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Jeff Reese, director of the Villa Rica recreational department, was working furiously to plug in industrial-sized fans to cool the sweltering gym. “We just bought every fan that Home Depot had,” Reese said.

Eddie Smith and Gwendolyn Campbell and their two special-needs children, ages 5 and 15, fled their home in New Orleans and arrived at the Carroll County shelter at 4 a.m. Sunday.

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans almost exactly three years ago this weekend, the family was trapped on a rooftop as flood waters rose around them and had to be airlifted to safety.

“This is just the first hurricane, and we’ve got three months left of hurricane season. How many times are we going to have to evacuate?” Campbell said.

Demetrus Smith and her boyfriend, David Washington, met in a San Antonio shelter after Katrina. The couple made it into Villa Rica on Sunday after a grueling 13-hour drive from New Orleans with Smith’s two sons, ages 15 and 7.

Smith said they passed many people stranded on the highway.

“People cannot afford to evacuate,” Smith said. “There were people pawning jewelry. I had to use my rent money to get out here.”

Evacuees from coastal areas of Louisiana and Mississippi streamed into metro Atlanta on Sunday, seeking refuge with family and friends and filling many hotels to capacity.

An exhausted Robert Gautreau arrived at a relative’s home in Woodstock about 2:30 a.m., looking for place to wait out Gustav.

“I’m not going back if I get flooded again,” said Gautreau, whose home in Kenner, La., was damaged after Katrina. “I think that’s it.”

In 2005, Gautreau also sought shelter in Woodstock with his wife’s cousin, Donnie Henriques. By Sunday, 10 extra members of the extended family had showed up.

“Most of them came three years ago,” said Henriques, the mayor of Woodstock. “The general feeling is if it’s another devastating situation, 90 percent would probably not rebuild.”

Tina Blackmore and her family booked five rooms at a hotel in Union City. After fleeing New Orleans for hurricanes Ivan, Katrina and Rita, she’s taking no chances with Gustav.

She crammed a sport utility vehicle with clothes and important documents, such as birth certificates and school papers, then loaded six family members, including her 80-year-old grandfather and 76-year-old grandmother. They arrived after a 12-hour drive.

“I wasn’t leaving without them,” Blackmore said of her grandparents.

Andrea Delgado, a front clerk at the Best Western hotel in Union City, said storm evacuees had already booked the hotel’s 60 rooms by Sunday.

Most plan to remain through at least Wednesday. The frantic scramble for accommodations started Saturday morning.

“I didn’t have time to get a drink of water yesterday,” she said.

Herman “Magic” Charles, a Christian radio station program director, left New Orleans on Saturday afternoon.

“For Katrina, we waited until the last minute to get out,” and it took 18 hours to get to Texas, Charles said. This time, following the advice of city officials in New Orleans, Charles and five members of his family, headed east and arrived at the Best Western about 3 a.m. Sunday.

“We saw the devastation,” he said of Katrina. “You have to realize, anytime something has to do with Mother Nature, you have to do what you have to do to keep yourself safe.”

Other evacuees at the hotel shared that philosophy. Yvette Glenn and sister-in-law, Roxanna Mearis, took their families and left Louisiana early Saturday.

“I didn’t think I was going to go through this again,” said Mearis, whose home was destroyed in Katrina. “I feel like I’m dreaming again.”

In Atlanta, Emily Ostuw, her three friends and their two dogs were holed up at her sister’s home. Ostuw, originally from Atlanta, graduated from Tulane University in 2006 and decided to stay in New Orleans because of the growth and opportunities. Her classmates did the same.

The group spent Sunday afternoon watching hurricane updates on their cellphones, computer and television.

“It’s not the same situation that Katrina was. We’re worried now about storm surges rather than levee breaches,” said Reed Morgan, a law student at Loyola University.

“We were all definitely stressed out and feeling the need to leave as soon as possible,” said Jessica Friedman, a Tulane graduate student.

This time the women knew to pack more than their bathing suit and a toothbrush. They even brought food.

Humans weren’t the only ones to evacuate. Two vehicles full of dogs and cats from the City of New Orleans Animal Control Shelter arrived Sunday at the Atlanta Humane Society. A large truck transported about 100 big dogs preceded by a van with 41 cats and kittens, six puppies and one stray dog.

Staff writer Rhonda Cook and wire services contributed to this article. Mary MacDonald can be reached at mmacdonald@ajc.com;

Chris Reinolds at creinolds@ajc.com; and Andria Simmons at asimmons@ajc.com.