Posted on 09/22/2005 8:37:41 PM PDT by xjcsa
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A mass evacuation ahead of Hurricane Rita became its own disaster on Thursday as traffic backed up for at least 100 miles when a million people tried to flee the Texas coast.
Tempers flared in the 97 degree Fahrenheit (36 Celsius) heat at the few gas stations that still had gas, overheated cars lined the freeways and trips that normally take 15 minutes stretched into hours.
Texas officials called for evacuation of the Houston area, including the city of Galveston, on Wednesday as Rita, now a Category 4 storm with 150 mile per hour (241.4-kph) winds, took aim from the Gulf of Mexico.
In the exodus that ensued, cars moved so slowly on Interstate 45, the main road to Dallas 240 miles north, that people had time to get out of their cars, walk to nearby stores, wait in long lines at restrooms and return to vehicles that had not moved.
Evacuee Peggy Hill told a local television station she had been on the road 20 hours, departing from League City 10 miles southeast of Houston and had not yet gotten across the nation's fourth largest city.
"I was finally able to get from Beltway 8 to Highway 290, so now we're on the 290 parking lot instead of the Beltway 8 parking lot," she said.
John Griffin, 37, Houston, his wife and two young daughters turned back to Houston after several hours on the road trying to move away from the coast.
"It's an absolute nightmare," he said. "I'm worried about the storm, but you have to pick your poison -- stay and deal with wind and rain here or get out on the road and deal with what are already catastrophic conditions on the highway. I've never seen anything like this."
Ella Corder told the Houston Chronicle in a call from her cell phone she had gone just five miles in 12 hours.
"All I want to do is go home," she said tearfully. "Can't anyone get me out of here?"
State highway officials at midday on Thursday finally shut down inbound traffic on Interstate 45 and opened all lanes to cars headed out, saying that logistical problems had prevented them from doing it before.
But traffic was so hopelessly backed up, the highways continued to be choked.
"This was not in the plan," Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said in a news conference.
Shannon Myatt, a Reuters sales executive, got caught in the traffic trying to the get the airport -- where travelers had to wait hours to get on to planes -- and said her taxi had gone 1/8 of a mile in 1 1/2 hours.
"We can't figure out why it's not moving at all," she said.
Myatt said people who did not get out and go to bathrooms in nearby stores were urinating in whatever they could find in their cars.
"They're peeing in cups and throwing it out the window. We just saw somebody do that," she said.
Officials offered no quick fixes, but said they would provide free gasoline to people who ran out of gas while waiting in the traffic.
(Additional reporting by Matt Daily and Mark Babineck)
"Evacuee Peggy Hill told a local television station she had been on the road 20 hours, departing from League City 10 miles southeast of Houston and had not yet gotten across the nation's fourth largest city."
Apparently Hank had nothing to say.
It's bush's fault that there was traffic. I think it would be great if they found out that TX misappropriated funds for highway construction!
Our gov is soooo f***ed up. I really need to become a politician so i can get chicks, booze, girls (maybe some underaged ones like clinton!), hang out with teddy and Billy, smack hillary on her big ol lard ass, chase after interns, get free food and trips, and get to go on TV and rant!!! Damn it, I'll have to switch parties and become a demoncrat now.
What a nightmare. Lesson for the future too. Mega city evacuations will turn into gridlock nightmare.
Duck and Cover!! It's so easy!!
The article said they had.
Thanks...missed it.
I just remember the horribly FUBAR'd evacuation of Louisiana with 4 empty lanes on the opposite side of the road. What sheer lunacy that was.
People were taking all the cars they owned, most with less than full tanks. Dad in one, Mom in another, and a teenager in a third. It's been hot this month, which adds to the discomfort.
Does it surprise anybody that clogging six arteries out of Houston with 3 million people can't quite be done in 24 hours?
The Media has been pounding on "Texas officials" all day about the congestion and the stations running out of gas as if they should have foreseen this.
This country is turning into a nation of pussies and wimps, who can't calm down and put up with a little discomfort.
Next time, I say, let 'em all drown!!!
Lots of macro and micro lessons to be learned from Katrina and Rita, that's for sure.
Don't fry bacon over a campfire between a mother grizzly and her cubs.
. Don't tease great white sharks.
Don't live in a large urban area, especially when the SHTF!.
Duhhh!
P.S. Oh, yeah. RULE #1 LEARN HOW TO SWIM. The world is 4/5 water.
No kidding.
So far:
1. Gun ownership - vital
2. Survival basics for at least a week should be on hand
3. The government can not protect you and your family
4. Band together with like-minded individuals and watch each other's back
5. Have alternate escape routes from large metropolitan areas pre-mapped so you're not killed with the cattle during the coming dirty nuke/bio-strike
I'm sure there are many more but I'm sick of typing.
Yeah, just think about Los Angeles County trying to evacuate, or San Diego County. Whew! At least you have mountains near by.
We call that contra-flow, worked pretty good here for those who had transportation.
BTTT
It's like getting out of a ballpark lot: the key is to go wherever you can even if it's in the wrong direction or on a road you've never taken before. (Avoid the slums, though.)
Right. Actually if you head to Corpus Christi, you can 'evacuate' against the flow... looks like the storm will not hit CC too bad.
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