UPDATE: FOX 40 News has learned more than 120 Hurricane Gustav evacuees left the Mississippi Trade Mart Red Cross Shelter in Jackson over night after gas card donations poured in to the shelter to help evacuees make the trip home after evacuating from Louisiana a week ago.
The shelter's volunteer spokesman Gerry Gilmour told FOX 40 News Sunday there are nearly 90 evacuees at the shelter now, and she expects that number to decrease in the coming days as more gas donations come in.
Gilmour also told FOX 40 News the Red Cross is in the process of relocating the remaining evacuees to a smaller shelter as the numbers continue to decline, starting Monday. The Red Cross is still determining where they will move the evacuees.
UPDATE: Close to 100 more evacuees piled into the Mississippi Trade Mart Red Cross Shelter late Friday and early Saturday, bringing the total number of evacuees at the shelter to 213 according to Red Cross Volunteer Spokesman Gerry Gilmour.
Gilmour told FOX 40 News Saturday more people poured into the shelter over night after running out of money at hotels and motels, and being sent to the Mississippi Trade Mart from other Red Cross shelters in Mississippi. The shelter saw close to 100 evacuees leave late Thursday and early Friday, but new evacuees have changed those numbers.
Gilmour said while many evacuees at the shelter, most from Louisiana, have run out of gas money to get home, others are afraid to leave as category 3 Hurricane Ike makes its way toward the Gulf of Mexico. Others are still waiting for damage and electricity reports about their Louisiana hometowns before making the trip back home.
“We're trying to help folks move on,” Gilmour told FOX 40 News.
FOX 40 News spoke to Louisiana emergency officials Friday, who said people who self-evacuated were essentially on their own to find money to get back to Louisiana.
That is the exact predicament Yvonne Carter and her four children from Avondale, Louisiana are facing now.
“I don't even have a dollar to make it home right now,” Carter told FOX 40 news. “It's very hard to come by money right now, especially when you've got four kids and you've traveled miles and miles away from home.”
“I had to leave the hotel and come to the shelter because I ran out of money,” Carter said. “This Hurricane, they were thinking it was going to be all that, I've run out of money. I need help.”
Carter said she rented a car to leave Louisiana, but does not have enough money to put gas in the car to drive it back to Avondale.
LaPlace, Louisiana resident Aaron Brown evacuated with his wife, nine children and six grandchildren. He just scraped up enough money Saturday to make the journey back to his home in St. John Parish.
Brown told FOX 40 News he spent all of his rent and utility money to evacuate. He and his family have been in two shelters since evacuating to Mississippi. While he and his family are happy to go home, they are worried about what they will find.
“We might not have a home to go to,” Brown said.
Brown told FOX 40 News he is hesitant about leaving the shelter while Hurricane Ike churns toward the Gulf of Mexico.
“We were advised to stay here for a few more days to see what Ike's gonna do because if we leave here now, and we have to evacuate again, there might not be room in the shelters for us to come back to,” Brown said.
UPDATE: Louisiana residents who were evacuated by the state department of transportation via bus, train or plane will have to return the same way in which they were evacuated, meaning if an evacuee took a bus they will take a bus back. Louisiana Department of Homeland Security told FOX 40 News that this process has already been started and underway since the last 36 hours. Louisiana residents who are trying to get back to their homes can call 1-866-288-2485 for information about the state of their town.
According to the LDHS FEMA is offering some financial assitence to evacuees who left Louisiana on their own. It is still unsure at this point what type of compensation will be offered but for more information who can call 1-800-621-3362 or go to www.fema.gov.
UPDATE: FOX 40 News just tracked down Louisiana officials who said Louisiana evacuees stuck in other states, including those in Mississippi and the Mississippi Trade Mart in Jackson, will have to return to the state the way they left.
According to Louisiana Department of Social Services Public Information Officer Janice Lovett, Louisiana transported thousands of Hurricane Gustav evacuees to nine other states, including Mississippi.
"However they got there is how they're going to get back," Lovett told FOX 40 News.
At last check more than 100 Hurricane Gustav evacuees were still at the Mississippi Trade Mart, many from Louisiana who traveled to Jackson by bus or came to the shelter after running out of hotel and gas money.
Lovett said FEMA is providing evacuees $500 in cash for life-saving needs, but said gas would probably not be included.
UPDATE: FOX 40 News discovered more than 100 Hurricane Gustav evacuees left the Mississippi Trade Mart Red Cross shelter over night, but close to 110 evacuees, most from Louisiana, are still stuck.
FOX 40 News is making calls to Louisiana Emergency officials to find out their plans to transport Louisiana evacuees from shelters back to their homes.
The Louisiana Governor's office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness media department told FOX 40 News Friday the state is coordinating with Louisiana transportation officials and the Red Cross to get buses to shelters in Mississippi and other states sheltering Louisiana evacuees.
According to Red Cross volunteer Gerry Gilmour, who is overseeing the Mississippi Trade Mart shelter operations, there are still close to 140 evacuees still living at the shelter. The Red Cross is planning to keep the shelter open until evacuees can find a way home.
Two local churches donated $50 and $30 gas cards to evacuees at the Mississippi Trade Mart Wednesday, but there were not enough for all evacuees and were no use to evacuees who evacuated to Mississippi by bus.
UPDATE: FOX 40 News just spoke with American Red Cross Public Affairs Director Tamica Smith-Jeuitt who said the Trade Mart shelter will remain open as long as there is a need. There are no plans to close the shelter, and Red Cross volunteers will continue to feed and house evacuees, according to Jeuitt, until people can make their way back home.
Officials said there are about 400 evacuees still in Mississippi shelters. Most of those evacuees are from Louisiana. Jeuitt said she didn't know how the Louisiana evacuees who were bused to Mississippi would get home. She said that was up to Louisiana officials, not Mississippi officials.
FOX 40 News also spoke with Red Cross volunteer Gerry Gilmour who said they are in need for supplies. Those supplies will be replenished, according to Jeuitt.
UPDATE: FOX 40 News just spoke with American Red Cross Public Affairs Director Tamica Smith-Jeuitt who said there is still no word as to how long the shelter at the Trade Mart will stay open and how remaining evacuees will be getting home. There is a conference call scheduled to take place by the end of the work day, and FOX 40 News will bring you the latest, up-to-date information.
UPDATE: The Red Cross is housing close to 250 Hurricane Gustav evacuees at the Mississippi Trade Mart in Jackson, most from Louisiana and nearly all without enough gas, money or transportation to get back home. Now Red Cross officials tell FOX 40 News they do not know just how long the shelter will remain open.
“We have not been told how long the shelter's open or when it's going to close. Until then, we're open,” said Red Cross volunteer Gerry Gilmour, who is overseeing operations at the Mississippi Trade Mart.
Gilmour told FOX 40 News the shelter is in dire need of blankets, diapers, formula and snacks for the evacuees still at the shelter. Gilmour said while some evacuees are leaving, even more are still coming in for help.
“People are leaving to go home, but we're also having people coming in and staying who've exhausted funds they had to stay elsewhere and can't get back home. So it's fluctuating back and forth,” Gilmour said.
“The evacuees are getting restless. They want to go home. They've seen some people go home, and they can't go home yet. They're getting anxious,” she said.
Baton Rouge resident Bril Morris, who boarded a bus with her sick infant son from the Mississippi Gulf Coast after trying to locate family members there, said she was not allowed to board to the school buses that sent Mississippi Gulf Coast residents back Wednesday. Now, she is hoping prayer will bring her back home.
“I don't know what to do anymore. I know I'm ready to go home. We lost everything in Baton Rouge,” Morris said. “All I can do is pray to God every night before I go to bed that they send somebody here to evacuate the people that may have rode with somebody or evacuate the people that came on a bus.”
Gilmour said the Red Cross is not making transportation arrangements for Louisiana evacuees.
