I feel that I have become a tourist in my own town. There are so many people on the road, I barely recognize Conroe. I wander like a voyeur, peering into the sullen windows of a tragedy in the making. The traffic and my amazement only grew as the day passed away into evening. I wish I'd brought the camera out for my second tour near nightfall, as the Interstate and all of the access roads had been clogged with thousands of cars, their white headlamps stretched as far as the eye could see to the South, and their ruby taillights shone like a sparkling velvet carpet into the North.
Of greater concern are those who for whatever reason have been forced to abandon their cars or the road. The Kroger grocery store they had pulled up to was closed, but the parking lot was full of transients. They were mostly poor, and mostly black and hispanic. It was as if the third world had driven up for the weekend and decided to host an enormous tailgate party. Their children ran and played with soccer balls and skateboards in the parking lot, and the men smoked cigarettes and looked serious. The women appeared weary, and searched for water and gasoline with empty gallon jars. The better prepared families brought small camp-stoves and portable grills from within their crowded vehicles, and began to share a generous and impromptu barbeque with their spontaneous new neighbors. Festive Mexican ballads and the steady thump of gangsta rap echoed across the parking lot.
Yet for all this momentary joy, something sinister lurked beneath. This adventure has stopped being exciting, and started to taste more of simple human desperation. Being poor puts a lot of strikes against you. You're less likely to be informed of the evacuation orders, and you are far less likely to have a vehicle in good repair with which to depart in. You are less likely to have the spare cash available to fuel or repair that vehicle as you need it, or to provide additional food or lodging to you and your family. Worse still, your job may have required you to work right past the ideal hour for evacuation, serving others more fortunate as they leave the city. When you finally do get off of work, you may find additional institutional barriers impeding your access to cash even if you do have a paycheck, as none of the banks or pawn shops upon which you usually rely to cash your check are now open.
These folks are just struggling to survive, and more importantly, struggling to help their families survive. If and when the storm starts, and if they are still trapped in the open of that parking lot - I hope that they kick in the windows of the grocery store and seek shelter. I won't blame them. They're just trying to survive.
