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.
And as Tom Deley said at the interview, the "farm to market" roads were virtually unused. These "back country roads" and State and Federal highways can carry a huge load, because even stalled traffic can get the hell off the road, but its hard to get out of the center lanes of a freeway.
Every hotel has a sign in every room about the evac route.
Why not do the same for every neighborhood, with conputerized projections of load updated every year, and flyers sent to every household to put in their glovebox in every car. On line places to down load yours, just key in your address and print it off.
Also, refuel all your cars when a tropical storm or hurricane enters the gulf. Even if you pack your family into one car, in an emmergency when gas stations are closed, you can siphon gasoline from a car you're leaving behind to top off your tank and to fill up some auxiliary fuel cans before evacuating.
No they didn't. There are lag times in evacuating. At the time lots of people left, the storm was projected to hit somewhere between Corpus Christi and Galveston. Even on Thursday moringing it looked like Corpus might get the storm.
People are not going to car pool. I'll bet families brought all their cars with them and this caused all the congestion.
I'm a usher at a theater. Do you think people come in early to get their seats. No, they come all at once.
Why didn't they evacuate everyone by bus? Leave the cars behind. People are not going to think rationally. Who would think about filling up extra containers of gasoline or have their cars in tip top shape for emergency evacuation?
You can have a perfect plan but the human factor determines if the plan works.
Most people don't plan for an emergency. My husband thinks I'm crazy stocking up on water in my pantry and purchasing a Buddy Propane Heater just incase we have a real cold snap this winter. We live in a city.
Considering the distance from Houston to Dallas, needing gas shouldn't be be an issue for most drivers. It's only 160 miles, well within the range of any vehicle. The problem was, the traffic wasn't moving. Leaving in shifts is a good idea to even out the flow, but that also places undue restrictions on people who want to travel freely (as every American is wont to do). The real problem as I see it is that there simply aren't enough roads to handle the movement of such a large population.
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