Rumors that hurricane evacuees and football fans would battle for space in area hotels were dispelled Saturday as Bulldog supporters made it to Starkville. Hundreds of out-of-town fans made some people wonder if hotels had enough space to house both enthusiasts and displaced victims.
But with evacuees occupying most of the rooms at many popular area hotels, football fans compromised comfort for those who had lost everything. “We’re going home after the game,” Paul Sikes, a Bulldog fan from Philadelphia, said.
Sikes and his fianc‹¨e traditionally spend the night in the Ramada Inn close to campus, but with the hurricane victims occupying most of the rooms, they decided to make the hour-and-a-half drive home instead. “We didn’t want to take rooms away from people who really needed them.”
Paul and Maureen George felt the same way about checking into their usual Comfort Inn. “It just felt so wrong to check in when so many are without homes on the Coast and in New Orleans,” Maureen George said. “We brought our RV for this trip,” she added.
Although the kindness of Mississippians allowed many evacuees to extend their stays at area hotels, cancellations due to the storm itself did a lot to balance out the crowd.
Jessie Smith, an employee of Hampton Inn, explained that a lot of fans are from Southern Mississippi and were unable to make it to the game due to Katrina’s damage. “It basically just balanced itself out,” Smith explained.
As far as the rumor that hotels would move refuges in order to make space for fans with reservations, Smith said that was simply not the case. “There is no way we would let that happen,” she said.
Not only do evacuees have plenty of space, they also have countless supplies. According to Smith, stacks of baby supplies, toys, food, drinks, and clothes littered the Hampton’s lobby. “The response has been overwhelming,” Smith said.
Similar comments came from Ramada Inn’s general manager, Mike Fraiser. “We have piles and piles of clothes, food, diapers, dog food and other supplies. There has been more support from the local community than I have ever seen.”
He recounted a specific instance of kindness from local residents. “One gentleman paid for a family’s room for four nights,” Fraiser said.
The Ramada, however, was not so lucky when it came to space. “Half of our rooms were closed for renovations,” the manager said.
Fraiser hired a crew to put furnishings in the closed rooms in order to accommodate both the fans and the evacuees. “It was a total fluke,” he said.
Several local businesses, including hotels, are offering special deals for those in need. The Ramada is offering a deeply discounted rate for those displaced by the hurricane, Fraiser said. Businesses like Southern Billiards, Bulldog Lanes, and SnoBiz offered families some entertainment by offering free games and cool treats for victims.
“It’s the least we can do,” Fraiser said. “Most of these people have absolutely nothing to go back to,” he added.
The Bulldogs even chipped in by offering free tickets to the Murray State game for evacuees. Larry Templeton, MSU athletic director explained the process. “We started by offering tickets to evacuees in the Starkville motels. We thought we would give out about 200 or so.”
After the department started contacting shelters, however, the response became enormous. “We decided to contact the Red Cross shelter at First Methodist. They used over 650 tickets. In total, we provided over 2,000 tickets to the game,” Templeton said.
These opportunities impacted the evacuees in a very real way. “Countless individuals have called or stopped by to say thanks,” Templeton said.