Exhausted, and looking for a place to rest, Hurricane Rita evacuees are now calling Austin home, at least for the time being.
"I went to about five hotels, I tried to see if they had a vacancy. They're all booked up," Lailah Suki said.
By Friday afternoon, more than 12,000 evacuees checked in to more than 40 Central Texas shelters. The number doesn't count the evacuees staying with family and friends in Austin.
"There was another school they gave me directions to, and as I got there, I called and they said 'well it's full, but this school in Round Rock is open,'" Suki said.
It only took about 30 minutes to fill up Round Rock High School with evacuees.
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Rita evacuees
More than 12,000 evacuees have checked into more than 40 shelters in Central Texas.
 
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"We went from Baytown, to San Jacinto Mall, and then they brought us to Houston where we got on another bus, and they just brought us here," evacuee Tiwanna Lavalis said.
Two bus loads of residents from Baytown and Pasadena arrived at Round Rock High School, glad they didn't have to worry about the traffic.
"That we didn't get stranded on the side of the road, out of gas, or anything like that. We made it here safely," Lavalis said.
With all of the shelters filling up fast around Central Texas, evacuees will have to make a decision as to what to do next.
"Maybe stay in the car, wait until it's over and go back on Sunday," Mitch Schaffer said. "I'm a positive thinker and I think we'll be all right."
