ON AN EVACUATION BUS IN BREAUX BRIDGE, La. — Darryl Campbell began his Hurricane Gustav escape at 4 a.m. Saturday. After 10 hours of lines and traffic, he was finally speeding down the highway to an uncertain future in either Shreveport, La., or farther north in Arkansas.
With swing jazz piping through the bus speakers, and the slouched shoulders of the elderly and poor filling the seats, he borrowed a cell phone to check on his mother, who had boarded another bus to flee to Baton Rouge.
“The Lord is with everyone, so of course everything would be OK” with her, he said, finishing his call and handing the phone back to its owner, a furniture maker who goes by his artisan name Ramsey.
Nearly all the 50 people on the ride said they may never return home, including Ramsey.
“I think once I get there to Arkansas I’m going straight to Stone Mountain, Ga.,” said the 51-year-old, who has family in Stone Mountain. “I gave myself a year and a half to make it in New Orleans. But the city isn’t back from Katrina, and it’s time to leave.”
Campbell, 37, did not disagree. He had been working for room and board at the Ozanam Inn homeless shelter in New Orleans…
