DETROIT (AP) — For the most part, the callers were calm, patiently asking for the fastest path out of Gulf Coast cities 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 well over 3,000 per hour.

“There’s a lot of people that are stranded on the evacuation routes,” said Brad Williams, a service manager for the automaker’s motorist help line overseeing OnStar’s response from a command center in Detroit.

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, Oshawa, Ontario, and Charlotte, N.C. Managers expected Sunday’s calls to reach 75,000, about double the number on a normal Sunday.

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.

Advisers reported that most callers were calm, leaving well in advance of the storm.

OnStar managers also had to prepare for more calls than during Katrina, because the service has grown from around 3 million subscribers to more than 5 million, Williams said.