After four days, more than 1,000 Iberia Parish residents who evacuated before Hurricane Gustav’s landfall Monday are home. And, they’re happy to be back.

Lawrence Babineaux of New Iberia said he would not want to repeat his four-day experience in a shelter in Monroe — an experience he said was “rough.”

“We felt like we were in prison,” Babineaux said at 11:55 p.m. Thursday as the coach bus that carried him back to New Iberia arrived at the SugArena on Louisiana 3212.

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Parish resident Darnell Bryant stayed in the Old State Farm Building in Monroe, which was used as a shelter.

He described his stay as “horrible.”

“We were there for three days with no showers or baths,” Bryant said. “They had over 1,500 people there and only 25 or 30 portable toilets at first.”

Derrick Keal of New Iberia stayed in the same shelter as Babineaux.

“It was four days of hell,” Keal said.

Mildred Wagner and Homer Sims, a couple also from New Iberia, were glad to be home, too.

“I’m so tired,” Wagner said. “We got a lot of rain.”

Her husband also took issue with the conditions of the shelter.

“There were too many people there,” Sims said.

Iberia Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness Director Jim Anderson said the first bus of evacuees, including many elderly and/or disabled parish residents, arrived at the SugArena at approximately 4:15 p.m. Thursday. Buses were expected to continue bringing the evacuees there through the night, and volunteers were on hand to serve dinner and assist the returning residents.

From there, residents were brought by Iberia Parish school buses to drop off points in New Iberia, Jeanerette, Loreauville, Rynella, Coteau, Lydia and Olivier.

While 35 buses of various sizes and types were used to evacuate the residents Sunday, primarily to shelters in North Louisiana, although some to shelters in Missouri and Texas, Anderson was unsure how many would be used to bring them home.

“We thought we might have 500 people but ended up with over 1,100,” Anderson said. “The state is responsible for getting them back to New Iberia, and we get them home from there.”

Anderson said initially a decision to bring the evacuees back would not be made until electric power had been restored to the parish, yet on Thursday he said this had to be changed as the shelters needed to be emptied.

“They asked us to expedite getting them back, although there is a possibility some will still be without power,” Anderson said. “It was a call we had to make.”

Iberia Parish President Ernest Freyou gave the all-clear Wednesday for parish residents who had evacuated under their own power to return home, provided they had their own transportation and were “self-sufficient,” meaning they had a livable structure to stay in.