LA PORTE, TX (August 2007) - Tropical storm Erin slammed into the Texas Bay Area coastline  on Thursday, August 16, 2007.  The La Porte and surrounding areas were hit hard by torrential rain, 40 mph winds, and flash flooding.

Comfort Suites in La Porte is located on Highway 146 and Fairmont Parkway.  By mid-afternoon, Hwy 146, Hwy 225, and Fairmont Parkway were closed due to excessive flooding.  Stranded motorists abandoned their cars and trucks along Hwy 146 at Fairmont Parkway and began walking, in knee high water and rain, to the Comfort Suites for shelter. 

Comfort Suites’ staff watched this migration of people from the highways and side roads.  Travelers were greeted with fresh towels, Comfort Suites rain ponchos, coffee and rooms.

The guests were grateful, assisting each other and everyone was at their humanitarian best.  Some simply wanted to wait it out in the lobby, others wanted rooms.  The dryers in the laundry facility had a line of good natured, wet people.

One guest, Mike Morrison, had five pizzas delivered.  (There was one lone restaurant still open on the “high” side of town.)  Mike graciously placed these pizzas in the lobby area and shared with anyone who was hungry and stranded.  As frequent guest at the Comfort Suites, we want to acknowledge his generosity and abundant support to all. 

A local resident wrote to our corporate office to express her gratitude toward the Comfort Suites employees during this storm.  She had been grocery shopping when the storm hit and was stranded for over an hour.  When she was finally able to leave the store, the streets were flooded so she pulled into the Comfort Suites.  Hotel employees allowed her to store her frozen and refrigerated items in the hotel kitchen until the flooding receded.

It was a glimpse, during a brief weather crisis, of how people are at their best when united for a common purpose.