SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – Hundreds of charter bus drivers who shuttled people from hurricane danger zones to the safety of San Antonio are on the road again.
Videos, photos show Hurricane Laura hitting Gulf Coast, damage
They lined up outside a downtown hotel, waiting for buses to take them to their own coaches which have been parked in lots near the AT&T Center since earlier this week.
”We just want to get people to safety. We’re just moving people to safety,” said Frank Stevens, a driver who lives in El Dorado, AR.
Stevens said he left home Tuesday for somewhat familiar territory, the Gulf Coast.
The Louisiana native has lived through numerous hurricanes himself, so he jumped at the chance to help others who were possibly in danger.
”I’m originally from New Orleans and we have hurricane parties,” he joked, when asked if he was concerned about his own safety.
The reality for people who were in the path of Laura was no laughing matter.
The hurricane flooded coastal cities in Texas and Louisiana, destroyed homes and left six people dead.
Taranza Curry also left the safety of his home in Dallas to make sure other people were out of harm’s way.
”We have buses that went to Lake Charles and some went to Galveston and evacuated people, a lot of senior citizen homes,” he said.
Curry ended up going to a town north of Beaumont where he said his help was desperately needed.
”A lot of people don’t have the means to leave,” Curry said. “When they have to leave and they make it mandatory for them to leave, then they have to just get up and go.”
Thursday night, the San Antonio Fire Department announced that, with evacuation orders lifted in the affected areas, the local emergency evacuation shelter on Gembler Road would be closing.
Still, for some of the bus drivers heading out Friday morning, it appeared this road trip might not being coming to an end just yet.
Some of them said instead of heading back home, they were waiting for orders on where to go next.
For now, though, they all were able to put this hurricane in their past and the Alamo City in their rearview mirrors.