Hotels In Montgomery At Capacity As Hurricane Irma Evacuees Travel To The River Region

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Many folks avoiding Hurricane Irma are making their way to the River Region; some having trouble finding accommodations.

Tarina Mann works at Montgomery’s Comfort Inn and says that phones have been ringing off the hook for the past few days. She says “we’re booked and we keep getting reservation after reservation calling , and its completely booked for the whole week and the weekend”.

Despite the high demand for rooms, the hotel has not spiked their rates. “We’re trying to keep it low for the people coming here, we just want to help the people that are coming due to the hurricane”  explains Mann.

It’s a similar situation at a nearby Holiday Inn Express. Kevin Thomas,  says they are full until next Wednesday.  He says “we’re welcoming everyone that we can accommodate but if not we’re just referring them to other hotels around here, hopefully they can be accommodated”.

Over at the Central Alabama Red Cross, volunteers are prepping to lend a hand if needed. “We’re getting water situated, food situated everything that we can do here, we are getting our bodies on the ground our volunteers , ready here for any evacuees that come this way” says executive district director Kathy Hodges.

As for sending volunteers to those areas in Irma’s path, Hodges says they are on standby.”In the state of alabama we’ve already sent 50 people to the relief efforts of hurricane Harvey so we’re standing still here to see what’s going to happen with Irma and then we’ll deploy our volunteers as need” she explains.

Thursday evening the Red Cross and FEMA  opened ASU’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome as a shelter for evacuees of Hurricane Irma. The Friendship Mission shelter will also accept as many Irma evacuees as they can.