I actually think White botched this thing good. There needed to be some emergency shelters in Houston and there were none because they said it wasn't safe. So people who didn't think their homes were secure, even though they weren't in the surge zone, took off. I'm not crazy about sheltering in place myself, alone in this little apartment, but they've given me no choice. I couldn't bring myself to join the debacle on the road.
Someone asked him about local shelters this morning and he simply refused to entertain the question.
I agree with you. Houston isn't NOLA where the city is surrounded by water and inadequate levees. The city knows what areas are prone to flooding after Allison. Shelters could have been opened to the North and Northwest - it would be better than nothing.
John I have a brother that is thinging of leaving Houston on HWY 59 to Corpus.Have you heard how the traffic is on hwy 59?
Thousands of residents became trapped for up to 14 hours on Houston-area freeways as nearly 2 million people along the Texas and Louisiana coasts were urged to get out of the way of Rita, a 400-mile-wide Category 4 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
Red Cross set up a hot line with information about available shelter locations. Call (713) 313-5480 for details on the closest shelter.
"Normally the Red Cross does not open shelters in an area where we think there could be storm damage, as is about to happen. But in this case, we absolutely felt we had to get people off of the freeways if we could and so that's why we're doing this," said Denise Bishop, with the American Red Cross.
Bishop said they expect TxDOT to post shelter information on highway signs along the evacuation routes to help drivers locate them.
State Shelter Hubs Opened
State emergency officials set up shelter hub sites earlier in the week, where people can go to be placed at a shelter in other parts of Texas. These are the receiving points:
Those needing information about statewide shelters can call (888) 312-4567.
Why couldn't some of the schools that were used for civil defense when I was growing up in Houston have been used as shelters?