Jack Brooks Regional Airport was the scene of a major evacuation operation Friday as flooded residents were bused to the location then flown to mega-shelters in Dallas and San Antonio on Friday.

Buses and other vehicles drove into the drop-off area where they were met by military, emergency officials and numerous volunteers who shuffled them along.

Some of evacuees waited outside the airport area where industrial fans attempted to cool them. Hillary Davis and her 10-month-old son Landon Davis of Port Arthur were two of the many there.

Davis shared the frustration of her journey from her home to the airport — including time spent on the road, sleeping on a bus and being rerouted due to high water.

She sat outside the airport eating a snack as volunteers Nicole Smith and Lauryn Hughes gave the baby some food and drink.

“I was transported by the U.S. Coast Guard to the Montagne Center in Beaumont. Then we were put on a bus to the Beaumont Civic Center,” Smith said. “On the way coming here we were dispatched to San Antonio but two buses got stuck in high water and we had to turn around and head back to the Beaumont Civic Center. They (officials at the civic center) started asking the bus driver questions, asking why the buses were back. They told them they were stuck and there’s no way to go. Then they brought the buses to the ball field (Ford Park in Beaumont), trying to figure out what to do with us.”

Smith called the evacuation unorganized, saying that she and others had to sit on the bus two and a half hours while a decision was made that led them to the airport.

Her main worry — could she get back to Port Arthur is she went to Dallas or San Antonio? She said she couldn’t get a straight answer so she decided to wait for a ride to bring her back home.

“I don’t want to take the chance of being stranded,” she said.

Smith’s home wasn’t flooded but the intersection near her home was impassible so basically, she was cut off from the city as is other residents.

Elsewhere at the airport volunteers from near and far, civilian, law enforcement and firefighters, helped out.

Matt VanErsvelde with Colorado Task Force Urban Search and Rescue said his group had been previously deployed to Victoria, then Houston and now the Beaumont/Port Arthur area. They brought in boats and rafts for water rescues.

One side of the airport was devoted to medical evacuations. Lines of ambulances and medical buses were parked along one area as other medical vehicles drove in. Those with medical needs were tended to and will be flown out via airplanes separately from the other evacuees.

A large portion of the parking lot was filled with canopies, supplies, seating area, feeding area and a cooling station.

Chester Jourdan, executive director of the Beaumont and Orange counties of the American Red Cross, said approximately 700 people were at the shelter at Thomas Jefferson Middle School and another 40 to 50 people at the Carl Parker Center on the Lamar State College Port Arthur campus that will be transferred to the middle school.

“We are trying to consolidate to have everyone in one shelter,” Jourdan said.

The campus has two gyms with cots, food and water. The Red Cross is working to bring in a kitchen cooking station and an area for baths.