Would somebody please explain something to me?? They keep showing highways in NO with people evacuating. There's one really busy lane heading out and two or three less busy lanes. Coming into town there are 5 or 6 lanes that are virtually empty. Why don't they use those lanes so people can get out??
I'm not sure the Governor has a clue. I've seen traffic going normally on WDSU's feed. At least Governor Riley in Alabama ordered I-65 South to be closed and used in addition to the other lanes as an evacuation route. Traffic should not be going both directions right now!
They're waiting for the President to order them to use the southbound lanes for northbound traffic. < /sarcasm>
Urgent prayers for these poor people. Hopefully somebody with some sense will get in there and open up the bottleneck and get those people fleeing much more quickly.
The contraflow is in place--just beyond the web cam views. All lanes are outbound from NO to BR.
Probably bears repeating, this thread moves fast.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1472123/posts?page=1334#1334
Regarding the traffic shot CNN and Fox keep showing, where all those cars are at a near standstill in the left lane, that location appears to be on I-10 in New Orleans, just east of where cars can shift over to the reversed eastbound lanes. Because of how the contraflow is set up, you have to choose your ultimate destination there, as the reverse lanes are directed towards Baton Rouge where the freeway splits about 20 miles to the west. I-10 goes to Baton Rouge (and Lafayette, where the freeway again splits to Shreveport or Houston) while I-55 goes north to Jackson, Mississippi. It also appears that the transition cutover path from westbound to eastbound lanes is only 1 lane, hence the big backup in the left lane. Notice how the far right lanes are moving smoothly, because not as many people are trying to head north. Other reports have also noted how traffic is much lighter on I-55, and in fact the MS Emergency Center spokesman said that they were a bit surprised and disappointed at how few were heading north out of Louisiana.