PORT ALLEN , Louisiana ( CNN ) -- Sixteen-year-old Tanya Simon is trying to keep spirits up inside the hall that has become home to families fleeing Hurricane Gustav . Tanya Simon , 16 , said she sometimes feels scared in the Port Allen , Louisiana , shelter . She brought two hair weaves with her from New Orleans and is passing the time by styling them and trying to reach friends on her cell phone . But she 's struggling even to keep her own nerves at bay . `` You 're not at home in a place like this . You look around , and you do n't know the background of the people looking at you , '' she said , adding that she felt a little scared . The community center smells , and there are n't enough cots for the 80 or so people seeking shelter there in Port Allen , Louisiana , just across the Mississippi from Baton Rouge . Tanya Simon is one of 18 members of her extended family who piled into a truck borrowed from a friend to get out before the storm hit . Her cousin Detrice Simon , 15 , sits on a Superman sleeping bag , wrapped in a Spider-Man blanket , occasionally reaching out to grab and quiet one of her three nephews . She had been trying to read a well-thumbed leather-bound Bible but had given up . `` I do n't have the patience any more . '' The family is safe , far safer than three years ago , when floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina had them trapped in their third-floor apartment for three days . iReport.com : Your Gustav stories . In 2005 , the family shared a dwindling food supply with neighbors as they waited to be rescued , said 18-year-old Terrence Cargo , another cousin . `` We thought everybody was going to die , '' he recalled . Now , American Red Cross staff members and volunteers are making sure the evacuees are getting three meals a day and snacks too , but it seems to be only temporary comfort . `` We 're so far from home ; we have no money ; we have no food . The money is running out . I 'm not even sure if we have any left , '' said Deandra Simon , Detrice 's sister . Just getting out of New Orleans took a big bite out of their resources when they stopped at a gas station , the 22-year-old motel housekeeper said . `` Watching how expensive it got , the more we filled up the tank , I got ta tell you , that scared me . '' It 's the stories and fears of women like Deandra Simon -- whose three sons , aged 1 , 2 and 6 , are with her -- that really get to Jean Cappuchi . Cappuchi , a registered nurse from New Hampshire , had volunteered in the aftermath of Katrina and booked a flight back to Louisiana as Gustav approached . `` It breaks my heart , these little ones . Their mothers are so stressed out , they 're crying , '' Cappuchi said . `` They do n't know if they 're going to be able to put food on their table . When they return home , if they have a home to return to . '' Cappuchi has mostly dealt with people crying and having panic attacks . `` We have learned a lot from Katrina , but in these shelters , we are going to have chaos . There 's always chaos . '' Outside , Douglas Patterson , 54 , and his friend James McDaniel , 42 , played dominoes with two National Guardsmen as the winds began howling . `` Here it comes , '' Patterson said , shaking his head . `` Damn , it sounds like something , do n't it ? '' Patterson said he worked in construction as a waterproofer . `` I wish could stop this water , '' the New Orleans native said . Watching the game , Chester Reeder also kept one eye on his children as they played hide-and-seek behind two steel water tanks in the old one-room gymnasium . They had spent 11 hours on the road , forced to detour through Mississippi to get to Baton Rouge . Just the cost of gas was bad enough on a welder 's budget , but Reeder plans to stay in New Orleans no matter how many storms hit . `` That 's home , '' he said . But he wonders whether his city has the strength to keep standing . `` Sooner or later , God is gon na wipe New Orleans off the map for all the murdering and thieving and no-good behavior people have been doing since Katrina , '' he said . `` That man keeps giving us warnings in the form of hurricanes . ''
`` You 're not at home in a place like this , '' says one woman in shelter . Family of 18 seeks refugee in Port Allen , Louisiana , community center . Evacuees dealing with stress , fears for home , concerns about money .