For tens of thousands of hurricane evacuees, pulling out the credit card is a painful experience that's happening over and over again.
"Our goal is just to keep everything as cheap as possible," said Angel Beyer, from outside of New Orleans.
Her husband doesn't expect to get his job back as assistant manager of a Sav-A-Center grocery store and wonders if he'll even get the paycheck he's owed. The family stayed at two Hollywood Casino hotel rooms this week, then switched to Fairfield Inn by Marriott, at half the rate.
Her mother, Gloria Boartfield, didn't even try to get cash out of her credit union account. "I'm just living off my Discover card," she said.
Every time they spend money, it's contributing to an unexpected, and largely unpleasant, economic boom for the city.
Hotels are booked -- much like Independence Bowl weekend, only the evacuees are staying for several weeks. They have no choice but to spend hundreds every day on hotel rooms and food, and they're also buying new wardrobes, generators and wireless cards for their laptops. Local citizens, in turn, are also buying: donating supplies and food to the shelters.
Companies are looking at short-term investments. Their New Orleans offices ruined, many have been starting to expand their Shreveport branches, according to the Northwest Louisiana Association of Realtors.
And temporary employment agencies have been overrun with calls from evacuees with time on their hands and a need for a paycheck.
"If I'm going to stay here a month or two or three months, I'm going to have to find a job," said Jonathan Quant, a hospital computer technician from Metairie. "If I have to pump gas, I will."
Quant was among evacuees at PJ's Coffee and Tea on Wednesday morning, almost all with open laptops. The coffee chain, prominent in south Louisiana, was packed last week, especially during lunch.
"It's been four or five or six times the people," said Elizabeth Smith, an employee. "I made $80 in tips from coffee drinks in one day. We've made more money in one day than we've ever made in one day before."
Kathy Sharp, part-owner of the local restaurant and several others, called it a "home away from home." Evacuees have been staying for hours for coffee and to use the wireless Internet.
"If you grew up in the New Orleans area, you grew up with PJ's," said Sharp, a refugee herself who was trying to check on her Slidell restaurant on Thursday.
Lanny Zatskis, a lawyer from New Orleans, was there every day. He was staying with his wife at his parents' house but still spending plenty of money locally.
"We took them out to dinner Sunday, Monday and Tuesday," he said. "The restaurants are doing good, and I'm happy because I grew up here. Today we're going shopping (for clothes). We went to Office Depot to buy a wireless card, and we've been to the drug store for a number of things."
Zatskis couldn't estimate how much he'd spend. It's much unlike revelers at the Independence Bowl, who have some sort of rough budget for tickets, food, beer and what they'll spend at the casinos.
Even the two or three days those visitors are in town brings $4.8 million in direct spending. In 2001, the bowl game brought in more than 45,000 people, of which 82 percent stayed for one or two nights. About $2.4 million was spent at hotels, according to a survey by the LSUS Center for Business and Economic Research.
It's unclear now how much the evacuees are spending, and nobody's calculating the numbers. There is no exact count of how many evacuees are in the Shreveport area.
"At this point, we're all trying to decide what we can do to help more than we are trying to count numbers on how we're benefiting," said Lindy Broderick of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce. "Our focus right now is how to help the evacuees."
Some local officials are looking beyond the money that's coming in, toward some happier times.
"It is good exposure for our area," said Brandy Evans, vice president of communications at the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau.
The office printed cards listing free things to do in the area and publicized trips to area museums.
"The people from south Louisiana, New Orleans in particular, we've not seen huge numbers from them coming up to our area visiting as a tourist attraction," she said. "I think some people will leave the area with another impression of Shreveport-Bossier City, a much better impression of Shreveport-Bossier City."
Many area businesses are working hard to present that good image.
The hotels are benefitting because the area's more than 8,300 rooms are booked all week, but they're also putting in a lot of extra work and paying overtime for all employees. The Hampton Inn in Bossier City, for example, has hosted a dog show and a pajama party, said general manager Scott Douglas.
The hotel is used to being occupied by one-per-room business travelers, but this week rooms are holding families. That means extra breakfast food and extra dedication to making people comfortable.
"I just talked to a guy with a laundry company and he says he has hotels now calling to pick up linen to wash it because they can't keep up with it," said Douglas, who's also president of the Shreveport-Bossier City Hotel Lodging Association.
And it's certain hospitality is pulling at the pockets of businesses.
The local General Motors plant spent $50,000 on 1,000 cots, 1,000 queen-sized air mattresses and 1,000 sleeping bags, plus other bedding materials. Bass Pro Shops had given a discount on the supplies.
"We're a part of this community, and when the community is in need we need to tap our resources to help in any way possible," said Donna McLallen, plant spokeswoman. "Being from GM-Shreveport, we want to take care of home."
The corporation was putting in hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the Shreveport plant was asking its sister sites for help.
"We're trying to stagger this because we realize this is going to be a long-term need," McLallen said.
Others are helping in smaller ways. Wigging Edrington of Metairie was a grateful visitor after his meal of fried pork chops, rice and gravy and candied yams at U&I Soul Food in Shreveport.
"Once he found out we were from New Orleans, he refused to let us pay for lunch," Edrington said of the restaurant's owner.
What it costs to leave
One family from the West Bank of New Orleans waited in hotel rooms this week and tried to spend as little as possible. Jay and Angel Beyer; children Hope (the youngest), Heather and Buddy; Angel's brother William Boartfield, their mother Gloria Boartfield and their grandmother Rose Clement stayed at Hollywood Casino in the beginning of the week, then found a cheaper rate at Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Shreveport.
Jay Beyer, an assistant manager at Sav-A-Center grocery store, was promised a paycheck from the week before, but the family's credit union was inaccessible. He knew there wouldn't be a job waiting for him at home.
The family received a $2,500 living expenses check from their insurance company, but living in Shreveport is costing much more. Here's a look at what the family spent last week:
• Hotel: More than $600 for two rooms at Hollywood Casino for two nights, then $170 a night at Fairfield Inn.
• Meals: Ran about $60 per day for eight people.
• Clothing: Spent $200 on clothes and bathing suits for the children. Work clothes for Jay Beyer will add to the cost.
• Miscellaneous: Coloring books, toys for the pets, cat litter. Replaced two tires on a van after hitting storm debris, but the family expects that will be compensated by insurance.
• Gasoline: About $300 for the trip up for a van, a truck and a car that was left in Baton Rouge.
