GALVESTON, TEXAS - Wanda Collins has spent nearly 30 hours waiting on the road since Galveston city officials ordered a mandatory evacuation Tuesday, and now officials on the causeway are telling her she has to wait even longer.
The Sheriff's Marine Patrol is compressing a line of cars that stretches more than a mile from three lanes down to one in order to screen each car reentering the island.
"People have been sitting on the sides of highways since Tuesday," Collins said. "There's fixin' to be a massacre here."
Collins and her family evacuated Galveston Island Tuesday at about 1 p.m. It took them three-and-a-half hours to get to Alvin, and until 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to get to Manvel, 40 miles outside Galveston.
They spent Wednesday night in an empty house that was unlocked and for sale, her daughter, son-in-law, grandchildren and two dogs are tired and hungry, but the wait to get on to the island is more than an hour long.
"I don't know what their game plans are - the city and the state - but whatever they are they really suck," Collins said.
The city's game plans include screening each and every car entering the island for some sort of documentation that proves residence.
"The Galveston emergency management people don't want sightseers or visitors, only people who live here," said Lt. Chuck Walsh, one of the Marine Control officials directing traffic.
While the cars are stuck in the filtering funnel, La Marque resident Dave Schneider rides his bicycle freely along-side the highway, collecting cans to trade in for money after power is restored to the area.
Schneider said Galveston residents had weathered worse storms, especially since the island only bore the brunt of the "candy-ass" side of the storm, and not the "kick ass" side. He said closing down businesses in Galveston effectively forced people to evacuate.
"As long as you can buy beer, ain't nobody goin' nowhere," he said. "The mayor did what she had to do after Katrina, she erred on the side of life and said business and property be damned."
Wanda Collins, anxious to return to her home and business on the island, said she doubts she will follow future evacuation orders.
"I don't care if another hurricane comes in that's a Category 9," she said. "I'm not ever leaving the island again."
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