Posted on 09/22/2005 12:24:35 PM PDT by truthandlife
There could be people going down to help parents or other elderly people board up, get out, or otherwise get ready. On Tuesday the mother of a guy where I work called from Galveston frantically trying to get in touch with him. He left immediately and I assume he has evacuated her and as much stuff as he could get in his truck.
A lady here at work whose daughter is at UT-Austin said the dorms have opened up to relatives of residents--you can take in your parents, siblings, etc. with no problems.
It would be a nightmare to try and get out now. I have friends who are going to try and drive to Dallas tonight from Sugarland. They waited so long because the husband is sick and homebound and doesn't like to leave the house. But now they are at best going to lose power and he can't tolerate no a/c because of his illness. I think they should have gotten out earlier, but I can understand how they thought they could ride it out.
Have relatives in The Woodlands area. Never been there, what is their situation?
Some left early last night and are still stuck in taffic.
I have a map I keep in my car at all times that has all the county and farm roads in Texas. You could travel on 2 lane dirt roads faster than the interstate or go south and then to the west and then north. I've lived in Houston and the traffic is bad ALL THE TIME. I can't imagine how terrible it must be for these poor folks, especially in this heat.
my uncle left houston at 3:30am, 7 hours to go 20 miles.
This is, of course, Bush's fault.
The media had to find something. I hope everyone makes it where they need to go. But just wait...a Repubican will be at fault for this.
In flight refueling?
Highways arene't train tracks...you can't "flip a switch" and make traffic go the opposite way.
The highway patrol/DPS people will have to clear the roads first, and stop people and/or put signs at every exit/on ramp.
I live 30 miles east of Austin off of 71 and it looks like rush hour traffic going into Austin 24X7 - where are all of these people staying?? Wal-Mart is apparently redirecting some Houston deliveries toward our area - now we have to feed 1/2 of New Orleans and Houston!
Mayor just announced Katy Freeway (I-10) has now implemented contraflow traffic.
Maybe, emphasizing public transportation more wouold help. We are going to have to come up with good evacuation plans for major cities.
Good sausage country!!!!
Women and children first?
I think you just turn the highways one way.... and ask people to be nice about it. And ask them not to wait until the last minute.
[shakes head] Just checked the traffic cams at http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/cameras/camtext.aspx - all the traffic-laden roads are NOT using both sets of lanes. Painful to see full-blown jams on one side of the median, and almost entirely empty on the other side.
Wonder how long until people realize how easy it is to get to the mostly-empty side, even at some risk of oncoming traffic ... and how long it would then be for police to get the point and shut down inbound traffic & rout outbound traffic there.
Can’t get out doing that.
I think what he meant was that smart people leave at 3:00am (drumroll)… last Tuesday.
Not to be a smartass, but if the freeways (esp 45) are screwed up you can fart around and work your way out on the farm-to-market roads – but you do need some familiarity to do it. I had the luxury of having worked for an electrical contractor. We never did much work in Houston proper, but did tons of it from the south (Lake Jackson/Angleton) around to the east (Liberty/Cleveland and beyond).
Also owned land in Woodville and Jasper, so that’s where I’d be headed…
As an aside, after getting fed up with the gas lines in the 70’s, my dad had a F-150 pickup outfitted with a shell and he had a nice 100 gallon auxiliary fuel tank installed. We could literally go from Friendswood to Jacksonville before we filled up (though we usually filled up in Mobile because they were cheaper, IIRC).
Nowadays all the vehicles have the fuel-injected, high-pressure fuel pumps/lines and stuff – and I don’t know if there’s any outfit around that would set you up with a 100 gallon tank behind the cab, but it’s something to think about. Because in an emergency situation, people will go about as far as one tank of gas will get them. You want to go two or three times that far just to get away from the riff-raff, IMO.
>>>Yikes!! Remind me never to ask You for help!! As the mom of 4 kids, I can say unequivocally, that this situation would be a nightmare!!>>>
Don't listen to meowmeow. They obviously have issues (jealousy) regarding people who are successful enough to afford nannies and dvd's and no matter how uncomfortable their children are, it's no big deal because they are rich. Stupid. My children would be miserable 13 hours in a van. Jeez
My Boss' relatives left Houston at 10PM last night and got to Austin this morning at 8AM
*sigh* Sending prayers for all that are trying to get out of the way of Rita.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.