Lake Charles: They are on their own

By Yancey Roy
Gannett News Service: 10:49 p.m. 9/23/05
LAKE CHARLES, La. -- Nearly all of low-lying, marsh-filled Cameron Parish evacuated before Hurricane Rita made landfall.
Except for three 40-something-year-old men who, at last check, were still in a trailer in the town of Cameron near the Gulf of Mexico, officials said Friday.
"The military went to their house. The Sheriff's Office went to their house. OEP went to their house," said Sheriff Theos Duhon, referring to Office of Emergency Preparations.
"We talked to them for two days. They said they were not going to go out."
That flies in face of 99.9 percent of the 9,500 or so folks in this parish. Every since Hurricane Audrey roared through in 1957, killing about 500, residents generally bolt as soon as there is a hurricane warning.
"Their parents went through Audrey," Duhon said incredulously.
At 5 p.m., on the way out to Lake Charles, the Sherriff's Department placed road blocks at the Cameron line more than 20 miles north of the holdouts. "If they stayed where they stayed," Duhon said, "Well, we'll find them when we get back."