William Jones is experiencing emotions he's never felt before.
"I really know how people feel not to have nothing,” he said. “I worked hard for everything, so it's really hard on me right now.”
Jones spoke those words as his eyes began to fill with tears. He held his two young daughters in his lap.
What makes it even worse is trying to keep a positive attitude in front of them.
"I'm trying to be strong though. I'm trying. I'm at a loss for words," Jones said.
The hardest part is finding the words to tell his daughters what's happened to their home.
"[We] can't go back home. You know that," Jones said to his 7-year-old daughter as tears begin to stream down her face.
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Young evacuees
Parents say it's tough explaining what happened because of the hurricane.
 
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"I just tell them the truth and keep it simple,” he said. “I don't try to sugar coat it, so they know this is a real serious situation, but it's just hard on everybody right now.”
It's a situation that most of the 1,200 evacuees at the Austin Convention Center find themselves in.
Many of those evacuees are Ike's youngest victims.
"Sometimes I miss school because I can be with my friends," 13-year-old Clarissa Montalvo said.
For her, it's the things she couldn't bring with her that she misses the most.
"We have baby kitty whose name is Killer, a rooster whose name is Tweety Bird and a chicken whose name is Lady, but I'm not sure if they're alive," Montalvo said.
Montalvo's adult brother, Chris Diaz, said the hardest part is answering one question.
"’When can we go back home?’ All we tell them is we might not get to go back home," Diaz said.
Rebuilding what's been destroyed, is easy if you're a kid playing with Lincoln Logs. It’s much harder for their parents.
"Things [are] not looking too good right now. Not at all," Jones said.
