Kemah resident Claire Durkee Worthington said she tried to get out of town, but couldn’t.
“I actually spent many hours attempting to evacuate to Otting,” she said.
Worthington was planning to meet some friends. She left about 3 p.m. Wednesday.
“I only got to the Interstate 10 (at the) Campbell Road exit at about 4 a.m. (Thursday),” she said.
“Exhausted I pulled off the road and slept in my truck until I was fit to drive again. I came home at about 11:30 am.”
Worthington also feared that the lack of open gasoline stations would mean she would run out of fuel.
“When I couldn’t find any gas my fear of being stranded and the new storm coordinates tracking somewhat to the east made my decision for me,” she said.
Please post something on FR when you get back on-line so we know that you are all right.
I think the three major lessons are that gasoline supplies need to be better monitored/coordinated. The Houston area needs to leave in shifts, much the way Galveston County did and that the more resourceful might wait longer to see where the hurricane is landing before deciding whether to leave. Obviously, a lot of people in the Freeport/Victoria/Corpus areas left for nothing.
One more suggestion for the "next time". Pack a gasoline container and fill that up before you evac. One or two more gallons might make the difference between being stranded on the road or finding a place to refuel.
“That is definitely something that will be addressed when we assess this situation,” said John Simsen, a spokesman for the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management.
I think its obvious that Tow Trucks and Fuel Tankers need to be pre-positioned every 5 miles along evac routes AHEAD of time, and that CounterFlow has to be opened earlier.
People have to be prepared to push cars off the road right away instead of letting traffic build up behind.
With tankers parked at protected locations (top of off-ramps etc) and armed police there, and army humvees with lots of gas cans to run up and down the medians/edges to refuel any that run out this kind of gridlock can be avoided. There would have to be a no-topping off rule. If you got a quarter tank, keep going to next fueler, don't stop.
2.5 million Texan's served their nation well by participating in what some must feel was an unnecessary drill, but one which saved many many lives, and will save many more in the future.
You couldn't BUY this kind of experience for any amount of money. The Twin-'Canes will make us better prepared for future terrorist attacks and other disasters. This month will be studied for the next hundred years.
Texas did it right. Not perfect. But way better than Louisiana. Every little Mayor and Sheriff stepped up to the plate. And Texans know how to take a clue. Hats off to Texas.
4 million people cannot all fit out the door at the same time. How stupid do you have to be to think they can? How despicable do you have to be to advocate there is someone to blame for not making it happen?
Traffic is the result of the cars around you, and what your own car becomes when it leaves your driveway. Must everything that happens in this country be painted as a failure & embarrasment?
Circa 1955:
{wavering tone on radio} "This is the Emergengency Broadcast Alert: Please tune to your local Konnelrad (sp) Station for emergency evacuation instructions. This is not a drill; repeat: This is NOT a drill1 a Soviet nuclear missile attack has been spotted by DEW Line radars. You have 45 minutes to evacuate the city...".
Would have worked great then; works super-dandy, peachy-keeno great now that the Interstate Strategic Highway System is completed.
KYAGB
Blog To Watch for Details About Getting Back Home
FYI,
"The Road Home
- What you need to know for a safe return"
Houston Chronicle Blog
http://blogs.chron.com/roadhome
: Once officials have given the OK to return to your community, let
: this blog be your guide home. We'll post information on road
: conditions and fuel availablity here. On the road and want to tell us
: about conditions along your route? Call 713-362-7060 and leave a
: voice message, or send a text message to 832-215-0811.
If the Lower Peninsula of Hampton Roads ever needs to evacuate there will be similar problems. I have only three ways out – Interstate 64, US 17 and 60. 64 and 17 are choked up with normal commuter traffic and 60 is a winding two lane. It was announced during the Rita coverage that we would be ordered to evacuate in groups – if everyone did exactly as requested it shouldn’t take more than a few days to clear the area.
Generally Texas did extremely well and much of what it does should be studied but the traffic situation almost destroyed all of that perception and the actual reality.
With my family in tow and a 90 year old grandmother we were stuck on 59 North going only 50 miles in 13.5 hours from Wednesday midnight until 1:30 PM on Thursday when we stopped at sister-in-laws in Splendora. It was there, watching her Directv that I found out the storm was bearing east and Sugar Land was going to be much softer that I hightailed in back on 59 south. It took 55 minutes on an eerily empty highway to go back home (it had tacken 13.5 hours to get there, 55 mins back).
My mother-in-law was vomiting and we were trying to get fresh air by holding the car doors open as we drove .3 mpg (not 3 bu _point_ three).
It was like a scene out of Deep Impact. There was no gas anywhere and everyone who did the 'right' thing got punished. If you didn't turn around, you ran out of gas, were in panic mode, etc. Even if you were able to get where you needed (driving maybe 30 hours) you were out of gas and couldn't get back and possibly no shelter.
Its also not comfy to see young black guys with do-rags, etc., walking along the highway in the open. Many of them were OK and this is not to be racist but we all know that many of these idiots can have a tendency to be thugs and no-one can blame anyone for feeling that way. Black, white, Mexican, etc., we have seen it all play out before, ...we took a rifle with us in case.
Many, not most and certainly few relative to how many were on the highway, decided to aggressively use the shoulders to 'jump ahead' of others waiting in line. It was piggish and some idiots were letting them in. These were people I personally eye-witnessed crossing traffic and jumping out of line solely to get ahead of others. I mercilessly honked and shouted at people in cars ahead of me when they let lines of these jerks in to the highway. NOTHING got past me. I was driving a lil Focus 2005 ZX4 and I refused to let any of these jerks in.
Something needs to be done and education is part of that. I am going to learn more about the FM roads, there are some good ones and not alot of people know about them.
Also taking spare gas with you is a good idea but you really have to be careful to seal it tightly as fumes can really be bad inside a car.
Houston hasn't seen a major hurricane in a long time so alot of people were not prepared entirely. That will change and the next time (as there will surely be a next time, even maybe this season) people will already be ready to go. Will have a generator in the garage or at least a power inverter for their car as a back-up generator; five gallon gas cans and plywood pre-cut. They will also have a healthy dose of skepticism in trusting the establishment (media, govt) on where and when to evacuate, which is good.
Daniel in Sugar Land, Texas.