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Hurricane Laura evacuees are starting to arrive in San Antonio. Here’s what happens next.
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On Tuesday, an evacuation center opened in a parking lot on Gembler Road near the AT&T Center.
On Tuesday, an evacuation center opened in a parking lot on Gembler Road near the AT&T Center.
Photo: Ken Branca
On Tuesday, an evacuation center opened in a parking lot on Gembler Road near the AT&T Center.
On Tuesday, an evacuation center opened in a parking lot on Gembler Road near the AT&T Center.
Photo: Ken Branca
Evacuees fleeing Hurricane Laura have begun arriving in San Antonio.
On Tuesday, an evacuation center opened in a parking lot on Gembler Road near the AT&T Center. Officials were told Tuesday night to anticipate 300 arrivals from the Texas coast, but by Wednesday morning 1,458 people had shown up and more were expected.
The storm, expected to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday, could come ashore as a Category 4 hurricane with a 20-foot storm surge.
More than half a million people have been ordered to evacuate their homes near the Texas-Louisiana state line, including the cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur.
The evacuees arriving in San Antonio are a mix of residents from the entire southeast corner of Texas, according to San Antonio Fire Department spokesperson Joe Arrington.
They will be sheltered in hotel rooms vacant amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is normally our extremely heavy tourism time and hotels are full. But because of COVID, we have that ability to utilize hotels,” Arrington said. “So it’s a mixed blessing, if you will.”
The hotels are not being identified because authorities want the evacuees to check in at 200 Gembler Road.
There, officials will make sure entire families are accounted for and medical needs are met. Then they can take a state-contracted bus or their own vehicles to their assigned hotels.
“We need to have accountability for them so if something happens and their family’s looking for them the state can reference and say, ‘Yes. They’re in San Antonio,'” Arrington said.
Evacuees will also be screened for COVID-19 at the center. Cities housing people in large shelters are testing for the virus, but San Antonio is using temperature checks and questionnaires because families will stay in individual hotel rooms instead of congregate settings.
The state contracts with hotels and caterers to provide shelter and deliver meals to evacuees.
On Wednesday, KVUE reported evacuees were turned away from the Circuit of the Americas in Austin because the check-in site was “at capacity.” Arrington said that has not happened in San Antonio ahead of Hurricane Laura.
San Antonio officials are prepared to shelter evacuees for “a long time” if the storm causes Hurricane Harvey-like damage, Arrington said, but “hopefully it moves through and spares some damage and these folks can return home.”