Posted on 08/27/2017 1:53:35 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner argued on Sunday that an evacuation of Harris county, which is currently seeing “unprecedented” flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, would have led to a far worse calamity for area residents.
"If you think the situation right now is bad, you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare. Especially when it's not planned," Turner said during an update Sunday on the city's response to Hurricane Harvey.
Turner argued that an evacuation order has to be "very well-coordinated all the way from Houston to the destination point."
"If you do it or attempt to do it and it's not coordinated, not done right, you are literally putting people in harm's way, and you're creating a far worse situation," Turner said.
The mayor, who was elected in 2015, stood by his decision not to issue an evacuation order for Houston because, while the city anticipated a lot of rain, Houston was not in Harvey’s direct path.
He said that because of the flooding, every neighborhood would have to be evacuated, which is "dangerous."
"You cannot put in the city of Houston 2.3 million people on the road -- that is dangerous," Turner said. "When you combine Houston and Harris county, you literally cannot put 6.5 million people on the road."
Turner said the best place for people is to be in their homes.
Hurricane Harvey -- which weakened to a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon -- has led to record levels of rainfall in the Houston area and has so far left three dead.
I think he did the right thing.
Have a CG bud that lives on the West side. Tells me a sprinkle floods the place as it us’tah be rice paddies.
He was OK last night but trips into VMS immediately which tells me maybe his phone cable and associated hardware is under water
It’s impossible to evacuate Harris County, or Fort Bend County for that matter. The minute you give that evacuate order the roads will be completely gridlocked. Nobody will go anywhere for days. Happened with Katrina. People were literally stranded for days in their vehicles or had to abandon them.
I wish we'd been in the direct path. This endless rain is worse than any storm I've ever been through here. Being on the dirty side of this storm is worse than being in the eye of the storm.
I’m inclined to defend him on this one. The Hurricane Rita evacuation was planned about as well as possible, and it was a complete clusterflock.
Not a fan of Sylvester, but he probably did the right thing. No way to tell which areas are going to get flooded-out, and this is a big county where flooding can occur almost anywhere. People that live here probably know best whether or not they live in an area that might flood given the predictions of record setting rainfall.
He knew which areas would flood. What’s his excuse for not telling those folks to leave?
Even if they didn’t evacuate, they should have moved some of these people out of low-lying areas and blocking off flooded roads.
One can’t “evacuate” the 4th largest city in the country.
Hundreds of people probably would have died in their flooded vehicles if everyone tried to evacuate. Even during Hurricane Ike, they staged the evacuations over a few days time.
Never depend on .gov. Most people understand that. Nobody needs .gov to tell them to leave or not.
You don’t evacuate everywhere. You evacuate the areas you know that have a strong chance of flooding. He’s creating a straw man argument (”you can’t evacuate everyone”) to hide the incompetence (evacuate those most at risk).
He absolutely did the right thing. I lived there during Allison and it was no picnic. Try having 6-8 million evacuate in an orderly fashion? Puhhhhleeease
No doubt, he should have evacuated flood-prone areas.
With possible 130-140 mph winds on the way, nobody would have to tell me it might be a good idea to seek refuge inland.
I’d find something to do over 100 miles north for few days.
Nothing stopped anyone living in a low-lying area from leaving on their own, I assume?
Almost everywhere in Houston floods. There is no evacuating areas that will flood. It all floods
“You cannot put in the city of Houston 2.3 million people on the road — that is dangerous,”
you mean like 2:00 friday afternoon???
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