KBTX - Hurricanes - Headlines

Hotels Scramble to Accommodate Guests and Evacuees

By: Kristen Ross Email
Updated: Thu 7:46 PM, Sep 18, 2008

It's crunch time for some Gulf Coast evacuees to find shelter, before football fans move into town.

We told you earlier this week about a showdown brewing at B/CS motels over what happens to the refugees, when customers with reservations head this way for the A&M game.

"It's been hell on wheels," Evacuee Michael Smith said.

Michael Smith and his family have been living out of the trunk of his car for a week.

Hurricane Ike sent them packing then, now a different kind of hurricane is uprooting the family once again.

We're talking about the Miami Hurricanes.

"We're having trouble with the rooms," Smith said. "There's some places that are booked up for the game."

As evacuees from the Gulf Coast, the family is bouncing from shelter to shelter and now hotel to motel.

This weekend's A&M game isn't helping things. Football fan reservations are putting some evacuees back on the streets.

"I know this town is thriving by the college, but a lot of people are not here because we want to be here, but because we have to be here," Smith said.

"Do I cancel it? Do I keep it? They're not responding," Carolyn Mayes says while looking at her reservation list.

Carolyn Mayes with the EZ Travel Inn in College Station has been calling people with reservations for this weekend's game since evacuees started pouring in.

"I told them we had a lot of evacuees here that needed a room and we had quite a few that did cancel," Mayes said.

Michael Smith and his family were even able to find a room at the EZ Travel Inn for a night, but other evacuees not football fans are forcing them to move on again.

"Unfortunately the only other room I had for the weekend was already taken by somebody else who was being kicked out of a different hotel," Mayes said.

"Off to another motel," Smith says while closing the trunk to his car.

Finding a motel that will take them in though is the tough part.

"FEMA is taking so long to process our vouchers so most hotels and businesses if it's not already approved they're saying you have to wait until they approve it," Smith said.

To try and help out, The 12th Man Foundation is asking Aggie fans coming to town this weekend for the game and planning to stay the night in a local hotel to rethink their need of that hotel room and possibly consider a day trip instead.


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