Posted on 09/24/2005 1:13:44 PM PDT by Graybeard58
"One can imagine what it would be like with no warning if several radition (dirty) bombs were set off in Houston."
No need to evacuate entire city for one (or several) dirty bombs.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:DuYKSapzK-gJ:www.fas.org/faspir/2002/v55n2/dirtybomb.htm+nuclear+dirty+bomb+effective+area&hl=en
"Imagine that the cesium in this device was exploded in Washington, DC in a bomb using ten pounds of TNT. The initial passing of the radioactive cloud would be relatively harmless, and no one would have to evacuate immediately. However, residents of an area of about five city blocks, if they remained, would have a one-in-a-thousand chance of getting cancer."
It took us 12 hours to drive from Houston to New Orleans 3 years ago, a normal 6 hour trip. It was road construction combined with regular Fri afternoon traffic.
Really? I never knew this. Can you imagine the hysteria of the media, though? These facts would totally be lost in their hype.
One of my neighbors left early Thursday from Houston, for refuge with family in Memphis. They made it there in reasonable time and had no gas troubles... simply by staying OFF the evacuation routes. Another neighbor left for Austin on Friday, the day AFTER the traffic gridlock, and at a time when we were being instructed to stay put, and hunker down. Again, they sailed through with no trouble.
Sometimes it's better to NOT follow the "official" instructions.
Becky, please add: They used the darn BUSES to evacuate the elderly, infirmed & poor!
Unlike you, i will not give Praise to the Democratic Mayors of Houston and Galveston for a Failed Evacuation.
The problem was that people left at the same time. In LA the people in the Lower Parishes left first and then the New Orleans began to evacuate.
I said the same thing last night on one of the hurricane threads and was called an idiot by several people.
On Thursday idiots in Austin were buying all the water off the shelves!
Major Case of Hurricane Envy!
Do you know for a fact that all the elderly and infirmed were evacuated from Houston?
there were people that didn't make it from 610 loop and 290 to the beltway in 12 hours...much less 500 miles to new orleans...there is simply no way to evacuate that many people given the present highways...the traffic jams were over 100 miles long. people sat still idling until they ran out of gas. i think next time they should evacuate the northern portions of the city earlier in the week or only allow cars with no empty seats access to the evacuation routes to cut down on traffic...it was really amazing to watch...maybe a light system like florida has where people can be warned when all lanes are heading out of town during emergencies instead of having to wait for the police to set up all the road blocks.
Yes, by bus and plane.
Where did you get such information that ALL these people were Evacuated safely by the Mayor White (D) of Houston?
It seems to me that there should have been some traffic controls. It should have been possible for those leaving the city to use some of the incoming lanes since they were not in use. It would not take much work at all to make that happen.
Jackson-Lee will use this to pimp for more government spending.
Perry will use this to pimp for his Trans-Texas Corridor.
It was on the news, they used c-130 planes and it showed them using the baggage cars to carry stretchers. Nursing homes were evacuated, etc by bus or whatever other means they needed.
Louisiana had the Contraflow lanes open by 4:00 p.m. on the Saturday before Katrina.
I am no radiological expert (or even amateur), but I did a little net surfing after 9/11 to learn about chem, bio, nuke (dirty bomb) attacks. Obviously if you are very close to the site of the attack you are probably out of luck. It seems like the key thing is not to be downwind (or quickly move upwind) in any of these type of attacks. However, I assume panic could set off a stampede where you would end up with gridlock anyway.
(disclaimer: this is just based on my brief reading of research. do not rely on any of it.)
Won't work. There'll be a discrimination lawsuit the first time some 400-pound fatty can't fit into the tube. Then, of course, there will be a wrongful death lawsuit the first time granny's oxygen tube comes out or she suffers "deceleration trauma".
You can't do anything effective nowadays unless the most feeble and incapable among us are able to access it.
Or go the same way as the rest of the herd. I was suggesting to anyone who listened to go southwest to Laredo or the Valley. There would have been less traffic and a better chance to find an available room. Beats driving to New Mexico.
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