Local hotels are seeing reservations increase as Gulf Coast residents seek shelter away from Hurricane Laura.
Candlewood suites in Aransas Pass is ready to accommodate those southeast residents as Laura hurdles towards land as a potentially disastrous storm.
A hotel employee said this situation is all too familiar.
Sara Larimore is a front desk agent who knows the destruction a hurricane can leave behind. She feels the panic of those escaping the fury of the storm.
“It’s kind of scary when it starts to get close again, because all of these worries and all of those things that you went through start to play back in your mind," Larimore said. "Is this gonna happen again, am i gonna have to do this again?"
Larimore was affected by Hurricane Harvey exactly three years ago and had to stay at a hotel for about a month in McAllen.
“Because of the limited hotels that were available in this area for such a long amount of time, that’s why we had to stay in the valley for roughly about 30 days.” Larimore said.
Candlewood Suites has already seen a significant amount of reservations and calls regarding room availability.
“We have a couple of guests that are in house, we also have several that are coming in today that are also coming from that area to seek shelter," Larimore said.
The surging storm is expected to spur an increase in reservations throughout the week, Larimore said.
Operators at the Embassy Suites in Corpus Christi said they also expect to see a spike in their business because of the approaching storm.
Alex Garcia with the American Red Cross said members have already been deployed to areas like Houston and Beaumont.
The group says it will continue to help those affected by storm both in person and virtually.
“We kind of ask them how are you doing, number one, are you able to participate during a disaster though whatever specialty they may have, " Garcia said. "Some may do logistics, some may do sheltering, some may do feeding."