[truthandlife]

TRAVEL SPEEDS Here are Houston freeway travel speeds for northbound and outbound traffic as reported by Houston TranStar about 10:30 a.m.

Gulf Freeway: Slows down a lot as you enter Houston: 60 mph from NASA 1 to El Dorado, 35 mph from Woodridge (near the loop) to Wayside, 8 mph from Wayside to Scott, 6 mph from Scott to Allen Parkway.

North Freeway: 6 mph from I-10 just north of downtown to Crosstimbers, "not available'' anywhere to the north of that.

Hardy Toll Road: 13 mph from North Loop to Little York, 1 mph from Aldine-Bender to Greens Road, 6 mph from Greens Road to FM 1960, 15 mph from FM 1960 to Cypresswood.

Texas 288: 50-65 mph from South Belt to MacGregor.

Katy Freeway: 4 mph from Eastex Freeway to Taylor, "not available'' everywhere else. (Was a standstill at 8 a.m. Probably still is.)

Eastex Freeway: 59 mph from Gulf Freeway to North Loop, "not available'' elsewhere.

East Freeway: over 60 mph everywhere except from Magnolia to Crosby-Lynchburg, which was 8 mph. Maybe an accident. By 6 a.m., Sarah Granbery had already had enough. The Rice Village resident forced herself up early to head for a friend's home in Nacogdoches. She had a full tank of gas, but less patience for the parking lot that was U.S. 59 North.

[Rodney King]

The smart people leave at 3am.

[stuartcr]

This may have a lot to do with the reluctance of people to evacuate. Many probably can't leave days in advance, because of their jobs.

[msnimje]

Right now on CNN (father forgive me for watching) they are showing them opening up BOTH side of the freeway for northbound traffic.

The Chief of Police says they are positioning Gas trucks along the freeway and people can stop and get their tanks filled along the way.

Hopefully this will speed things up considerably.

[Brilliant]

Don't go to Louisiana. It's target is moving east.

[Black Tooth]

Bookmark

[meowmeow]

With three children and a nanny in tow, they had run through three DVDs and all the snacks in the minivan

boo hoo hoo. hurricanes are so inconvenient.

[StarCMC]

Ping

[manwiththehands]

Bush's fault.

[sandbar]

The thing is, this right here will prompt people to NOT evacuate next time. Especially if Houston is spared (and Rita looks like she is slowing down, but still rough).

[Southack]

"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"

Just mark this nimrod's above comments now, compared to what he'll be whining about when Rita misses Houston altogether.

Hurricanes are notoriously difficult to predict very far into the future...

[Pete]

Here is a link to the traffic cams

KHOU reporting that they have opened both directions on I-45 but not on I-10 (Katy) and 290. Even so, KHOU showed a shot of I-45 where people were out of their cars just hanging out.

[bonfire]

It takes hours and hours and hours to get from Dallas to Houston on a GOOD day. We used to travel every Thanksgiving from D. to H. until it got so bad we JUST COULDN'T GET THERE!! I feel for these folks. I45 is the pits.

[texas_mrs]

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.''

On my way to work this morning, I noticed the small hotels in Dublin and Comanche had plenty of vacancies, yet Brownwood, the next town West and quite a bit larger, reportedly has no vacancies. I think alot of the smaller places would be easier to get into.


The lady at the the convenience store I stopped at this morning said the parking lot was full ALL NITE LONG with people headed West and North. My husband says Granbury has no fuel, but I didnt notice any outages in Comanche County yet.

[rightinthemiddle]

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.

[lormand]

My Boss' relatives left Houston at 10PM last night and got to Austin this morning at 8AM

[politicalwit]

It took my brother-in-law from 5:00 PM to 10:00 AM to travel from Houston to Waxahachie via I-45 to 287. (normally 2.5 to 3 hour drive)

[cowtowney]

Mayor Nagin has just told all the evacuees to go back to Houston.

[Revolting cat!]

Are the hungry, thirsty victims looting plasma TV sets yet?