No Way Out: Many Poor Stuck in Houston - New York Times

No Way Out: Many Poor Stuck in Houston - New York Times: "September 23, 2005

''All the banks are closed and I just got off work,'' said Thomas Visor, holding his sweaty paycheck as he, too, tried to get inside the store, where more than 100 people, all of them black or Hispanic, fretted in line. ''This is crazy. How are you supposed to evacuate a hurricane if you don't have money? Answer me that?''

Some of those who did have money, and did try to get out, didn't get very far.

Judie Anderson of La Porte, Texas, covered just 45 miles in 12 hours. She had been on the road since 10 p.m. Wednesday, headed toward Oklahoma, which by Thursday was still very far away.

''This is the worst planning I've ever seen,'' she said. ''They say, 'We've learned a lot from Hurricane Katrina.' Well, you couldn't prove it by me.''

On Bellaire Boulevard in southwest Houston, a weeping woman and her young daughter stood on the sidewalk, surrounded by plastic bags full of clothes and blankets. ''I'd like to go, but nobody come get me,'' the woman said in broken English. When asked her name, she looked frightened. ''No se, no se,'' she said: Spanish for ''I don't know.''

Her daughter, who appeared to be about 9, whispered in English, ''We're from Mexico.''"