My wife and I live in the Dallas-Ft Worth area and wondered if anyone else has thought of this question: "How do we prepare for a massive influx of evacuees?"

NOTE: This is not meant to be tirade against evacuations. I'm happy to help those escaping from harm's way. I'm just curious about "how to do a better job" preparing for their arrival.

I thought of this as Hurricane Dean was initially predicted to hit the southeastern Texas Coast. While not directly in the past of the storm, DFW would be in the path of a mass exodus of evacuees (much like Hurricane Rita '05). I do remember that our gas supplies in DFW ran low with price spiking (those arriving from the coast needed to fill up as they arrived and filled up again before they left.) I also remembering planning to house some of my friends' family in our house/backyard until the situation calmed down.

Looking forward to your thoughts

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

Stocking up on fuel and food and ice to avoid being out on the roads is a good idea.

Stocking up on patience because tempers will be very short.

Baton Rouge was on edge for over a year after Katrina/Rita, and we're still having problems such as kids in the schools segregating themselves sometimes violently into "225" and "504" groups (504 is NOLA's area code, 225 is Baton Rouge's).

Encouraging others to be open to intergrating the evacuees into your community cause they're going to be there for a while whether you like it or not. Might as well help them feel a sense of belonging.

I would tell the new staff/patients on my unit and people in the grocery store that came out of NOLA "welcome to the neighborhood". They really didn't want to be there as much as some of the "natives" didn't want them there.

Planning your trips around town and knowing your alternate routes due to traffic jams is a must. What was a 25-30 minute commute home in the evening became an 1 1/2 hour lesson in deep breathing and patience.

I would let people into traffic as an act of defiance even though I was seething just because I refuse to let the environment make me into an a**hole.

I like Blast's idea of printing out maps to shelters and other services. There were a couple of times I wished I had some maps because though I give excellent directions (and I'm exceeding humble as well) the poor folks I was trying to direct were so stressed that they just couldn't process anything except the most basic instructions no matter how intelligent they were before the storm.

Also having on hand stuff like Walmart gift cards or McDonald's gift certificates on hand because you will run across people stranded out of gas or hungry.

My wife's church opened up to house Red Cross volunteers for several months. They had cots in the friendship building. Individuals and families in the congregation would take turns doing laundry (we did the thursday loads) or preparing meals for a specific night. They used sticky notes on the wall for what items needed to be provided and folks would write on the sticky note what they would fix for that night.

It was pretty impressive set up that evolved.

Probably having plan / phone tree of what ever group you belong to with how/what y'all are willing/able to do before hand would be helpful.

"...I'll print out the maps and just hand them to the stranded folks..."

Great idea. While kind of off topic, when my wife and I are campground hosting, I make up a map of the local area, with things like grocery stores, doctors, vets, RV repairs, etc, and pass them out. Even tho many folks can not read a map well, it is still better than giving verbal directions...

A view from the other side of the window:

One thing that those who could end up being evacuees might want to keep in mind is that people might be more likely to offer some assistance if the evacuees could provide a certain amount of help for themselves, rather than being just a whining pit of need (aka 'parasite'). Face it, the fewer demands that are made by those in need, the more they are likely be offered.

For instance, suppose someone told me that in the long line of people coming off the highway (think Katrina) there were four or five families who had bugged out with camping gear, bucket toilets, food, cook gear/stoves, and pets with food, crates and restraints, etc. I would feel much less reluctant to offer them space on my flat, fenced, open, mowed, two-thirds acre where they could take advantage of the bordering shade trees and a long garden hose, than I would to those people who had made no plans, and made no attempts to alleviate their own potential problems.

As long as they were obviously trying to do their part, I would be willing to provide a safer, more private and relaxing place for a temporary stay than they would have alongside a freeway, or hiding in a tangle of blackberry bushes fifty feet from an outdoor meth lab, or homeless paranoid whacko.

They would have a place where they could feel safe, keep their children confined to a limited area, and have pets and belongings right there with them.

I could feel good about being able to help without that uneasy feeling that they would be a financial and emotional drain, or having strangers tramping through my home at all hours.

If the situation were reversed, and I was the one who needed a safe place to stay, I would feel like an idiot if I didn't have the bare necessities with me. And I think I would be WAAAAAY too embarrassed to beg for help, when I had done nothing to help myself.

Sue

Sue,

That's why we are already using this site to prepare for the emergencies to begin with. I would hate being a burden to others just because I was too lazy to prepare and take care of myself. I guess my grandparents lessons about living during the Great Depression and WWII still stay with me.

Sue,

I don't disagree with a thing you said. But...it is very hard to turn down someone genuinely in need, especially, as Blast mentioned, the very young and the very old. In such a situation, tough choices have to be made, and lived with thereafter.

Which actually underscore the responsibility of each of us to be prepared. I don't want to be the cause of somone else's moral dilemma.

I spent 30+ years helping people out of the fixes they got themselve in, and while I did all I could for everyone, it did tighten my jaws a lot less when the folks had at least attempted to plan and help themselves along. We are talking traffic law enforcement here, not running from a hurricane, but things are similar. Finding someone broken down on I-5 in the middle of no-where, four bald tires, frayed fanbelt, no spare, no jack, no lug wrench, no money, no credit card, no cell phone, no friends to call, no knowledge of how to change a tire, nothing but a desire to go somewhere, even tho they lacked the funds for food, motel, anything. "Help me Mr. Highway Patrolman" is all they had. Then you have the guy/gal who popped a radiator hose, has the supplies to patch it, has a tool kit, and is in the process of doing just that, but a second screwdriver, supplied from my "war bag," will speed things along. Much more fun helping those types out...

The real struggle comes when one's own family members (siblings, 30-something children) are squarely among the ill-prepared. Who, despite diplomatic (and sometimes not-so-diplomatic) encouragement for years, personify those Sue and OBG describe. Food reserves consist of this week's worth of groceries (maybe); a gallon jug of distilled water (actually bought for the steam iron) is their water back-up. They subscribe to the classic "they — whoever they are — will take care of me."

Used to think it was my responsibility to take up the slack for them (and make no mistake...they'd be beating a path to my door in a heartbeat), but these days, old age is making me a bit more cynical and less-inclined.

Dan

"it is very hard to turn down someone genuinely in need, especially, as Blast mentioned, the very young and the very old."

Oh, I fully agree. But the very young and the very old are usually accompanied by those who fall in between, the ones who should have known better and done better.

My major discomfort zone: how many of the hordes am I capable of helping? Where do you cross the line from enough to too many? Can you even tell where the line is, until its too late?

Sue