A Louisiana woman said in a series of TikTok videos that she and her family boarded a bus during a Category 5 hurricane evacuation in 2021 and were then taken to a dark, wooded area instead of the civic center they had been told about. Shâee Mariee, who posts as @shaeemariee__, described the experience as one that left passengers distressed and unwilling to get off the bus.
She said they had no choice but to evacuate and that buses were provided to take people out of their city. Mariee stated they were told they were going to a civic center in a different city. Instead, she said they ended up in the woods with signs that read “Park Closed, Do Not Enter.”
In the first TikTok video, which she said had gained 470,900 views, 37,200 likes, and more than 2,100 comments, Mariee filmed from inside the bus at night. She wrote in the caption, “They literally tried to drop us off in the woodssss !! Y’all wanna hear the full story ??” The video showed a man at the front of the bus wearing a light blue protective gown, blue gloves, and a white face mask.
Passengers said they were pressured to leave the bus in a closed park
Mariee said in a later caption that it was close to midnight, and some older people who were hot and tired chose to leave the bus. She stated that those passengers were immediately asked for their names and ages, given something to drink, and sent to one of the campers visible outside. The rest of the group, she said, chose to stay on the bus.
In the video, she can be heard saying, “Listen, I can’t get- I’m listening, y’all. This is too much for us. We already going through this hurricane thing in our family. It’s too much.” She later told the driver they did not want the accommodations being offered. “We thank y’all for what y’all able to do, but we don’t want it,” she said.
A female passenger can be heard saying they were not trying to do anything. Mariee then said they also had a choice to file a lawsuit against the bus company because the state had already been paid to house them. The driver can be heard saying that it was their choice.
Her second TikTok video is labeled on screen as “Part 2 ! They literally LIED about where they was bringing us!” It is also filmed from inside the bus at night, looking out through the windshield. A man in a light blue protective gown, white mask, and blue gloves stands in the driver’s area facing the passengers. Another person in similar attire is visible in a reflection.
In that video, a passenger said the location was nothing like what they had been told. “They offered us a lie. That’s what they offered us, a lie,” the passenger said. Staff can be heard saying that other people at the shelter were going to different places. Passengers then accused them of changing the story and said another relative in Texas was recording the conversation by phone.
She posted a 3rd video on TikTok titled “Part 3! I tried to catch everyone’s faces just in case something happened. Read caption!” It shows several people outside the bus, including a person in light blue scrubs or PPE, another in a yellow hazmat-like suit, golf carts, RVs, and a white SUV marked “STATE TROOPER” and “LOUISIANA.”
Mariee said in the video’s caption that staff tried to bribe and intimidate them throughout the night to get them to get off the bus, but they did not. She said they stayed on the bus until morning, when they were taken to where they were originally supposed to go. Those who left the bus, she added, had to stay behind. From there, she said, they were all evacuated to Texas and were safe.
In the video, a passenger can be heard saying, “I’m very well educated, very well. You’re getting caught in your own lies, you contradicting your own f–king self.” Mariee commented that she did not know what was going on and that people wanted to get paid. She wrote that she was posting the videos now to warn others for future reference.
Viewers left comments on the videos reacting to the PPE worn by the people outside the bus and urging caution. One commenter wrote, “why they masked up like it’s a pandemic.” Another said, “Bus drivers wearing scrubs??? hell nah! Something def not right! i hope ya’ll safe!!!!”
A third commenter wrote, “remember all the kids that went missing riding on buses when the fires broke out in Hawaii. don’t get off, record everything.” Another added, “This a prime example of have a plan in place for your family and not rely on any officials.” Such online scrutiny of public assistance efforts has appeared elsewhere, like when a video allegedly showed a long line of people waiting for EBT benefits in Chicago.
Published: Sep 12, 2026 11:00 am