Brian,

When Rita was projected to hit Houston we ended up with hundreds of refugees on our doorstep. We're only 20 miles outside of Houston but many people were already out of gas and water. They flooded all the parking lots of the shops along I-45. Some neighbors and I tapped our stockpiles of gasoline to get some back on the road (old and very young). We also brought water and ice, but the best thing we did was track down emergency shelters opening up in the area (churches, schools, etc...) and passed on directions to these spots. I'm not sure if the shelter operators liked that, but it did get the refugees out of our neighborhood...

After the storm passed I tracked down every site used as an emergency shelter within 15 miles and made pdf maps to them. The next time this happens I'll print out the maps and just hand them to the stranded folks rather than try and give them verbal directions.

-Blast