Evacuees: At the Hollywood cinema in Beaumont yesterday, manager Tam Vu was cleaning up after a weekend of heroism and human kindness that could cost him his job.
The building took a serious battering from Hurricane Rita on Saturday morning, when part of its roof was blown away, landing in a car park 100m away.
But the main structure withstood the hurricane force winds and kept alive the 50 desperate strangers Mr Vu sheltered inside.
A 34-year-old who came to America as a refugee from Vietnam, Mr Vu was preparing to leave Beaumont on Friday afternoon with his mother Hanna and James Mueller, a friend who shares his enthusiasm for video games. The two men decided to store their expensive computer equipment inside the cinema before leaving on a private aircraft Mr Mueller had borrowed for an escape to Dallas.
As they prepared to leave, a police SWAT team arrived to ask Mr Vu if the cinema could shelter people who had missed their last chance to leave the city before the hurricane came.
"I asked, where is the official shelter? They told me there was none in Beaumont or Port Arthur. We all just looked at each other and said, 'OK'," he said.
Throughout the afternoon, police officers brought the stranded to the cinema - old people, children, single adults and entire families, many of whom had been wandering the streets looking for a safe place to spend the night. The police searched everyone for weapons before they entered but once the wind began to rise, the police disappeared, leaving Mr Vu, his mother and his friend to keep order.
Three cinemas were set aside as sleeping areas - one each for single women, single men and families. Few had brought food or water with them and some complained about the service on offer at the Hollywood cinema. "They began asking us why we had not arranged proper food and water for them. I told them we didn't know they were coming," Mrs Vu said.
Then Mr Vu decided to show some films - Just Like Heaven, a romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon and Lord of War, a violent thriller starring Nicolas Cage.
He served hot dogs and popcorn and handed out sweets to the children.
At 12.30am, electricity was shut off in Beaumont and the cinema was lit by one fluorescent camping lamp, two flash lights and four candles. Mr Vu, who has lived in Florida and Mr Mueller, who is from New Orleans, tried to tell the guests what to expect when the eye of the storm came but nobody was listening.
"More people started to listen to us without question after the roof blew," Mr Mueller said.
Around 2am, a huge wind lifted off half of the roof in the cinema foyer, knocked a couple of walls together and tore through the front of the building. A few people inside passed out but others seemed oblivious to what was going on and Mrs Vu had to stop a few inveterate smokers from going outside for a cigarette.
After the storm had passed on Saturday morning, Mr Vu heard a crash as a police SWAT team burst through the door, expecting to find a repeat of the violent, squalid scenes inside the Superdome in New Orleans four weeks ago.
"They said, how many are dead in here? I told them we had no trouble and they could have just knocked on the door," Mr Vu said.
The cinema's unexpected guests have moved on to shelters in San Antonio and Mr Vu was considering what to do next. He had not asked permission from his bosses before opening up the cinema and he is not sure how they feel about it.
"It's only a job. If they fire me, they fire me," he said.
Mrs Vu, who lives with her son, thinks they may have to leave Beaumont in any case because it could be a year or more before the Hollywood cinema reopens.
"I moved my whole life in 1975. I can do it again now," she said.
Standing in the wrecked cinema yesterday, Mr Vu said he would do the same thing if a storm came his way again but Mr Mueller said he hoped it wouldn't happen too soon. "They say God favours the foolish but having a conscience sucks," he said.