Comments, anyone? Hopefully, this is the Lone Star State showing the rest of the Country how things are done. Be Seeing You,
Chris
Comments, anyone? Hopefully, this is the Lone Star State showing the rest of the Country how things are done. Be Seeing You,
Chris
My wife made the same observations - I hope you're both right but this looks like a REAL bad one.
Those buses are full of white people, don'tcha know. You gotta have decent evacuation plans (and more importantly actually use them) if white lives are at stake.
In all fairness, we knew that Rita was going to be bad yesterday, it is set to make landfall on Saturday.
Maybe I wasn't paying attention enough, but it seems like we only had about 48 hours to evacuate NO.
Basically, they had another day. You can get a LOT of work done in one day!!!
It is as hard to get good results when working through incompetent/corrupt local officials, as it is to stick a greased snake through a keyhole. IMHO.
Congressman Billybob
Regarding the contraflow - I was wondering the same thing. When are they going to institute it?
The Texas DOT just put a press release up on their site that it will start at 1030 local time. The very last sentence of the announcement is interesting:
Changes Should Ease Highway Traffic Flow
All Lanes Of I-45 and I-10 To Be Outbound Only
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, September 22, 2005
HOUSTON -- City, county and state officials announced Thursday morning that all lanes of Interstate 45 will flow northbound from Houston to Buffalo, about 130 miles north of the Bayou City.
Texas Department of Transportation said the change would go into effect at about 10:30 a.m on Interstate 45.
Gov. Rick Perry made the decision Thursday morning to alleviate bumper-to-bumper evacuation traffic on the primary evacuation route.
Local media has reported that northbound traffic on I-45 is bumper-to-bumper for up to 100 miles north of Houston.
Once the changes on Interstate 45 have been implemented, road authorities will begin setting up a similar plan for Interstate 10 toward San Antonio.
This is the first time the state has ever taken such a step. They also said the plan is an improvisation and has never been part of the state's emergency plan.
Last night I thought the same thing. Now, I'm not so sure.
My wife called awhile ago to check on the whereabouts of relatives heading out of Houston for San Antonio. They left late last night. They're stuck in traffic at Katy!
For all practical purposes, they've barely made it to the Houston city limits! A friend reports a brother hit the same kind of outbound Houston traffic, got off the freeway and went back home. Not good signs.
Hopefully, things will ease up by tomorrow.
...blue state versus red state...which one would you choose???? I know which one I'd trust...:)
As was widely discussed during Katrina - and irrevocably proven by the June 9th 2005 minutes of the Orleans Parish Shool Board - the City and the School Board were still haggling over the use of school buses, drivers, gasoline etc. for hurricane evacs.
That's right, in June 2005. This year.
Then in July 2005 the School Board was effectively neutered by a hired private management firm, due to the bungling and effective bankruptcy of the school district.
We can safely assume that there was no plan or process in place to use N.O. school buses for evacs.