There are tried and true methods of moving large numbers of people away from threatened coastal areas that I don’t see being implemented such as “contraflow.” That would be reversing the direction of one side of a multilane highway in order to double the vehicle capacity outbound and inland away from the threat. This has been done in Miami/Dade and numerous other areas including the Carolinas. If set up, drilled and agreed upon well beforehand, with designated sections evacuated one by one in priority of risk exposure, it absolutely does not have to be a death trap of a parking lot going on for hundreds of miles. Yes Houston is a huge metro, but being somewhat inland the entire city would not need to be evacuated, just the known flood risks, the very low-lying areas, alongside rivers, creeks and bayous. I’m surprised such a preparedness step has not been taken there. This was known to be a potentially historic storm from a standpoint of rain accumulation well before landfall. It was on a weekend, so commuter traffic would not have been a major issue. There’s no reason for there not to be such a plan for the entire coastal region. Make it optional if need be to placate the Texan independent streak, but those who choose to remain in the face of an implemented evacuation should have to take the morbid steps that sheriffs and police have been telling evac refuseniks for decades, mark your social security number on your arm with an indelible marker for identification, police and emergency personnel very well will be unable to reach you in the event that you get into trouble.
The contra flow idea was raised after the last botched evacuation didn’t get very far. Doubling the 4 or 6 outbound lanes in the city would get a lot of vehicles on the road and moving for 20 to 50 miles until the outbound lanes reduced to 2 and in some areas 1. Doubling that gives a maximum of 4 lanes and in some areas 2. Where you try to converge 8 to 12 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic onto 2 to 4 lanes, the plan falls apart. You wind up with thousands of frightened and angry people stranded in virtually unpopulated country with no fuel, water, or food. As a friend told me, I would rather escape the rising water by climbing onto my roof than being stranded on the highway in no mans land. The best laid plans ....
Houston is the population center where smaller cities and towns on the coast go for refuge but there is no place for Houston’s population to turn. There is probably not 3000 hotel rooms within 200 miles north or west of Houston. Medical facilities - forget it.