Rita Evacuees Can't Believe They're Being Housed In Jail

WSDU 6
Sep. 29, 2005

DALLAS -- After spending days on a bus, some Hurricane Rita evacuees finally found a place to stay in Dallas. Now they have food, water and shelter but say they can't believe where they're staying.

It's not that evacuees here aren't grateful to be alive and have some help, but some people who have endured an awful trip now find themselves in a jail.

As busloads of Texans rolled into Dallas, few knew the struggles they had faced to get there.

"We was on the road, we could not stop to use the bathroom. When we did, we had to go in the woods," one evacuee said.

Most of the evacuees are from Beaumont, Texas, but said there was little compassion for their circumstance along the way.

"Everybody's store was closed down. They wouldn't give us gas for the buses, they pulled shotguns on us. We didn't have no food. We had to hang out the windows to get water," Debra Smith said.

It was 72 hours before they hit Canton, Texas, and some hospitality. They were told they were bound for Dallas and nicer accommodations.

"We in a jail house," Smith said.

She is in jail with barefoot toddlers, newborns and the elderly.

It's shelter with space at a minimum. A place to rest, find some clothes, get a hot meal, and shower -- all things Bobby Johnson considers blessings.

"The storm was so devastating, it could have destroyed our lives as well as it did our property," Johnson said.

Smith said she's grateful for life. She just wishes she were living somewhere else.

"To look at it outside, it don't look like a jail, but we in jail," she said.

The bottom line: Decker Jail is one of the few facilities open that can house and feed hundreds of people.

Still some folks said they would rather be on a floor anywhere than in a facility that normally houses inmates.