Several temporary shelters have been established in cities across the South to house evacuees from the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Isaac makes landfall.
A shelter set up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is housing one such evacuee.
Anthony Booth, 38, of New Orleans arrived Tuesday night to the Red Cross shelter at the Faith Bible Church, 1437 West Pleasant Run in DeSoto. He came by car and on foot.
Booth told NBC 5 he rode out of New Orleans Tuesday with a car full of friends destined for Dallas. When he arrived at his friend's family home, Booth said he was told there was not enough room for him there. So his friend's mother dropped him off at the Red Cross shelter she saw on the news.
It turns out she did not pay close enough attention. Booth was dropped off at the wrong church and said he had to walk approximately five miles to the correct location.
"At least I'm here now," Booth said Wednesday morning, seated on the only occupied cot in a gymnasium filled with 99 other empty ones.
Booth said he was surprised to see that he was the only evacuee staying at this particular shelter, but added that he knows many other people fled the Crescent City, and the Gulf Coast, to several other shelters around the region.
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"I couldn't take any chances," Booth said about his decision to leave. "If you had asked me on Sunday, I would have said I was going to stay. But after what happened a few years ago, I know I can't take any hurricane for granted."
Booth told NBC 5 he stayed in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, exactly seven years ago to the day he fled another hurricane.
He was trapped on the second floor of a flooded home for more than a day after Katrina and had to be rescued by a boat.
Booth said he has been talking on the phone to his brother who stayed behind this time. His brother said there has been a lot of wind in his neighborhood and that a tree blew down overnight Wednesday behind Booth's home.
"I'm hoping I can leave here and go home by Friday," Booth said of his plans to return. "Until then I'm here."
