Posted on 09/22/2005 12:24:35 PM PDT by truthandlife
ixteen hours to San Antonio and Dallas. Eleven hours to Austin. With over a million people trying to flee vulnerable parts of the Houston area, Hurricane Rita has already become a nightmare even for those who left last night.
Traffic is only occasionally moving on freeways, and on Interstate 45, the main route, the drive just from Friendswood to Conroe was taking up to 13 hours.
Hoping to speed the evacuation ahead of Hurricane Rita's arrival, authorities decided to open the incoming lanes of two Houston freeways to outbound traffic for the first time ever. Plans to reverse the traffic flow U.S. 290 were abandoned.
When all lanes of I-45 became outbound lanes north of Conroe early this afternoon, traffic immediately sped up. On I-10, some drivers weren't willing to wait.
On I-10 near Sealy, a stream of motorists who heard of the plan on their radios pulled into the inbound lanes and drove off. Their impromptu traffic management plan raised everyone's average speed from stop and go to 55 mph.
Closer into town on I-10, Ella Corder reported this afternoon that it had taken her 12 hours to go just five miles. Noticing cars out of gas littering the freeway, she turned off her air-conditioner to save fuel, but the 52-year-old heart patient worried the heat and exhaustion were making her heart condition worse.
"All I want to do is go home," she said tearfully by cell phone. "Can't anyone get me out of here? "
While some motorists had no problem finding gasoline, others reported going from station to station in search of fuel, and police officers along the highways were carrying gasoline to help people get out of town. Refineries in Houston stopped pumping gasoline and diesel into delivery trucks last night so they could prepare for the hurricane themselves, according to Houston's largest distributor, Sun Coast Resources.
With traffic at a dead halt on some highways, fathers and sons got out of their cars and played catch on freeway medians. Others stood next to their cars, videotaping the scene, or walked between vehicles, chatting with people along the way. Tow trucks tried to wend their way along the shoulders, pulling stalled cars out of the way.
It took Tiffany Heikkila 11 hours to drive with her 5-year-old son from Sugar Land to Austin. She left at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and saw packed hotel parking lots and gas station lines backed up all the way to the exit ramps.
"All along the way, cars were pulled off on the shoulder with drivers sleeping. They had their doors open with one foot hanging out of the car.."
Gary and Sunni Markowitz left Bellaire at 5:30 a.m. today but after six hours were only 20 miles into their trip to Austin.
With three children and a nanny in tow, they had run through three DVDs and all the snacks in the minivan. Their two-year-old was crying. A friend who was following them in another car with two children had already turned around for home, and they were seriously thinking about it themselves.
When she hit the Crosstimbers exit, she gave up and headed back.
"I guess we should have left Monday,'' she said.
Three women headed to Waco from Deer Park drove four hours before pulling off U.S. 290 at 43rd Street in northwest Houston. They were walking their three dogs under the oak tree in front of a closed McDonald's and regretting they didn't leave either earlier or later.
"There's no sense sitting up there. We're going to wait until they open the other side of the highway," said Cindy Miles.
Even getting on to the freeways has become difficult. At some intersections around town, gridlock was reported at stop lights. Only one car was getting through each green light at intersections along Alternate 90 between Hillcroft and Gessner, turning a journey of minutes into a two-hour drive.
Those who are able to get out of town were encountering yet another headache: Hotels hours inland were filling up quickly today, all the way to the Oklahoma and Arkansas line.
John Decker, 47, decided to board up his home and hunker down because he could not find a hotel room.
"I've been calling since yesterday morning all the way up to about 1 this morning. No vacancies anywhere,'' he said. "I checked all the way from here to Del Rio to Eagle Pass. I called as far as Lufkin, San Marcos, San Angelo. The only place I didn't call was El Paso. By the time you reach El Paso, it's almost time to turn back.''
The Category 5 storm weakened slightly this morning, and forecasters said it could be down to a Category 3 - meaning winds as high as 130 mph - by the time it comes ashore late Friday or early Saturday. But it could still be a dangerous storm.
Noting that the traffic jams at least show residents are heeding the call to evacuate, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said today it's not too late to leave.
"Don't follow the example of Katrina and wait,'' Eckels said. "During the storm, we will not be able to get to you."
Some are already saying, however, that the evacuation didn't have to be this bad.
Houston City Councilman M.J. Kahn wondered today why the Texas Department of Transportation didn't reverse the traffic flow on freeways when the evacuation order was given Tuesday. Once inbound lanes of I-45 were turned into outbound lanes today, traffic quickly speeded up.
"Why wasn't TxDot on the same page?" he asked. "Yesterday morning that should have been part of the plan
Officials in coastal counties south of Houston were questioning why Houston called for such an early mandatory evacuation of its residents in Clear Lake and east side neighborhoods along the Ship Channel. By beginning evacuations on Wednesday, said Brazoria County Judge John Willy, more vulnerable coastal residents were prevented from making a quick exodus through Houston and to their shelters further inland.
At 11 a.m. EDT, Rita was centered about 460 miles southeast of Galveston and was moving at near 9 mph. It winds were 165 mph, down slightly from 175 mph earlier in the day. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore somewhere between Galveston and the Louisiana border.
Noting that the clogged roads at least mean people are heeding the call to evacuate, Eckels said he recognized the frustration of evacuee traffic stacked bumper-to-bumper for up to 100 miles north of Houston. He reminded evacuees that the storm is still 48 hours out, leaving plenty of time for motorists stuck in traffic to complete their escapes.
"We still have time to clean out these roads,'' he said.
People unable to escape low-lying areas in Houston on their own were urged to call a city hot line, and Mayor Bill White said 10,000 people have called. Throughout the night the city was sending buses to get them out, but people were still told they needed to count on family, friends and neighbors.
White reiterated that there is no safe place to stay in low-lying and flood-prone areas of the city, and there won't be shelters in the city.
"There will be no central place for people to go,'' White said.
The crush of people seeking to get out of Hurricane Rita's path, however, spurred Greyhound Bus Lines to halt ticket sales at its main Houston terminal today.
"Too many people are showing up,'' said company spokesman Eric Wesley in Dallas. "We want people to know that they shouldn't come to the terminal to buy a ticket. There's no more room on the buses.''
In Galveston, meanwhile, City Manager Steve LaBlanc estimated that 90 percent of the town's 57,000 residents have evacuated.
"This city is a ghost town right now," he said. "You could drive 80 mph down the sea wall."
Five more buses were called in this morning to pick up stragglers.
Before boarding this morning, Galveston native Mike Johnson said his brother offered to take him out Tuesday but he dragged his feet.
"I know this going to be a bad one, but I wanted to wait and make sure."
Tommy Green, an evacuee from Louisiana, also boarded a bus to a Huntville shelter this morning.
After surviving two days on his rooftop in San Bernard Parish in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he has since moved to Dallas to Oklahoma to Galveston, where he has relatives.
."I just can't believe this happening again," he said.
Mayor Nagin has just told all the evacuees to go back to Houston.
Those photos you posted tell the real story.
I'm hunkering(MSM's forvorite phrase)down here in SW Houston. Got 5cs of Shiner, 12pk tuna, 6bgs of beef jerky, 1 box Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls, log of Copenhagen, 1gal of h20. Bring it on.
Buy your Brother In-law the book: Roads of Texas for Christmas. There is more to life than the Interstates. It even marks the cattle gaurds on the County Roads.
"Highways arene't train tracks...you can't "flip a switch" and make traffic go the opposite way."
It has already been done in other states. Should it have taken 2 1/2 days to "flip this switch"? No, I think not.
Lessons should have been learned from LA evacuation. Seeing cars bumper to bumper on a highway while the inbound roads were empty doesn't make any sense at all.
They probably would have been better off on the dirt roads.
You were one of the lucky ones.
My wife's wacky family lives in Houston. Not the type to listen to directions or prepare. She called her brother last night and he was tapping a keg because they let him off work. Totally clueless. I just hope they don't end up on my doorstep.
OK, I just saw Governor Blanco giving a press conference with somebody doing sign language. For some reason I can't stop laughing. Does this make me a bad person?
Are the hungry, thirsty victims looting plasma TV sets yet?
Yes, having large percentages of people heed the voluntary evac call is good, sure, but to not couple it with a contra flow plan---and TXDOT DID NOT HAVE ONE IN PLACE, accoring to Mayor White---was unconscionable.
I know: I spent 8 hours heading east, got only about 110 miles, gave up and headed back.
Pathetic, insane, ridiculous. How the hell do you expect a city of nearly 3 million to evac in 48-72 hours w/o contraflow? Hell, even New Orleans got that part right.
I have an invite to hunker down on Lake Conroe tomorrow, but I'm inside the loop and running on fumes right now.
There was a lady on the radio who left Santa Fe, Texas, at 3 a.m. this morning. Right now, she's running out of gas in Bastrop.
Our middle school in Bryan is serving as a shelter for folks from mursing homes in Friendswood, outside of Houston. Those 47 precious elderly folk were trapped on the bus for 27 hours. Three of them died along the way. It was a nightmare. They ran out oxygen 3 times. Their bus driver is my hero. It was my privilege to help them off the bus and into our gymnasium, filled with cots and volunteers.
The smart people learn to travel on the many Farm To Market roads and avoid the freeways.
The smarter people checked things out before buying and are sitting at home all cozy in a house or apartment that is in no danger of flooding and little danger of wind damage.
So9
No, I think we just have to be realistic when talking about evacuating a major city in short notice. I don't think any country has the infrastucture to evacuate millions, with the current roads, in a short time period. Cities/roads, just aren't designed to handle entire populations all at the same time.
Having evacuated metro New Orleans twice now in less than 1 year I can say you're dead on correct. For Ivan and Katrina I left at about 3-4 am (24-36 hours before landfall) and took 2-lane highways to Houston arriving in roughly 7-9 hours. Others leave at 10am,head down the interstate and are shocked to find 80% of others with the same idea.
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