For the most part, the callers were calm, patiently asking for the fastest path out of New Orleans or some other Gulf Coast city as Hurricane Gustav twisted its way to the northwest.
They started calling General Motors Corp.’s OnStar service by the thousands early Saturday, and by Sunday their numbers had grown to more than 3,000 an hour.
As more than 2 million people tried to outrun the deadly storm, OnStar beefed up its staff to around 500 and put emergency plans in place at three call centers in Pontiac, Mich.; Oshawa, Canada; and Charlotte, N.C.
The storm calls are sent to specially trained OnStar advisers, many of whom were on duty during Hurricane Katrina.
“They’re more prepared. They know what questions have been asked,” said Brad Williams, a service manager for the automaker’s motorist help line who was overseeing OnStar’s response from a command center in Detroit.
The advisers were armed with computerized maps, databases of hotels with vacancies and even locations of Red Cross emergency shelters, Williams said.
All day, callers asked for the closest hotel with vacant rooms. They asked OnStar to find loved ones who were on the road. But most of all, they wanted to get around the clogged interstate evacuation routes.
“They don’t want to get on the major highways because they know traffic is at a standstill,” said Kim Dupee, a senior adviser in Charlotte who spent much of Sunday directing people out of metro New Orleans.
“It’s steady. The calls don’t stop.”
Advisers reported that most callers were calm, leaving well in advance of the storm. Governments and drivers, they said, were far better prepared for Gustav than they were for Hurricane Katrina.
By Sunday evening, OnStar was telling people that most hotels were booked up in areas along the Gulf and even as far inland as Dallas. They were…