With Hurricane Gustav threatening to strike the Louisiana Coast sometime on Monday, many Iberia Parish residents with disabilities or without access to transportation of their own are boarding buses to head north.

Beginning at about 10 a.m. this morning the Iberia Parish Fire Protection District and the parish Community Emergency Response Team, based at the SugArena on Louisiana 3212 began assisting parish residents board school buses for the journey to shelters in North Louisiana, primarily in the Shreveport area. The evacuation was estimated to be going on until about 3 p.m.

“The effort is on time and organized,” said CERT co coordinator Zack Mitchell. “We’re registering people here to make sure families are together. Then we get them on to the buses.”

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Mitchell estimated that about 500 people would be evacuated during the course of the day.

“It looks like we’ve learned some lessons from the past and it’s a lot more organized.”

CERT volunteer Cynthia Elmer said at 10:50 a.m. she thought things were going well.

“It’s flowing very smoothly and we’ve got quite a few volunteers,” Elmer said.

Odelia Boutte and her family arrived at the evacuation center at approximately 10:45 a.m. for a journey she guessed to be somewhere in the Bossier City area.

“It think it’s going to be OK,” Boutte said. “Thank God for protecting us.”

Clarence Collins of New Iberia said he had never experienced a hurricane here before and he was concerned.

“I hope it goes the other direction,” Collins said as he waited to be evacuated.

Bossier Parish School Bus Driver Meritt Nation was on his second Gustav evacuation meeting Sunday morning as he waited at the SugArena to bring a group of evacuees north to the Shreveport area.

“I hope it is going more smoothly than in Lake Charles,” Nation said.

Roland Adams Jr. and his son Clarence Jackson were at the Bayou Pins Bowling Center in New Iberia, one of the satellite pickup sites. Adams moved to New Iberia three years ago from New Orleans after surviving Hurricane Katrina.

"I had to swim my way out," Adams said. "This (today's evacuation) is way better."

Tashana Jenkins of New Iberia said that she would prefer to leave.

"I'd rather evacate, me," Jenkins said. "I don't want to drown in the water."

SugArena Director Tim Guidry said that as of 11 a.m. Sunday a number of animals had arrived to be sheltered at the facility, including approximately 50 horses as well as some pigs and goats. Guidry stressed that animals sheltered there must be tended to by their owners.

“You just never know,” Guidry said about the storm.

Parish residents who would like to bring their animals to the SugArena can call 365-7539.

Daily Iberian photographer Lee Ball contributed to this report.