HoustonChronicle.com - Havoc from hurricane comes early to Houston's freeways

HoustonChronicle.com - Havoc from hurricane comes early to Houston's freeways: "'I've been calling since yesterday morning all the way up to about 1 this morning. No vacancies anywhere,'' he said. 'I checked all the way from here to Del Rio to Eagle Pass. I called as far as Lufkin, San Marcos, San Angelo. The only place I didn't call was El Paso. By the time you reach El Paso, it's almost time to turn back.''

Some travelers without hotel reservations, however, discovered sudden vacancies made possible only because others gave up evacuation plans out of frustration.

Rene Alaniz of Katy counted herself lucky because her family's journey to Austin from Katy took only 10 hours, often on dirt roads, and ended at at a Holiday Inn with unexpected vacancies.

New Orleans native Janice Armstrong, an evacuee of Hurricane Katrina, had worse luck. Again. She was turned out of her downtown Houston motel this afternoon. Motel workers shut the building on West Dallas, saying it's too likely to flood."