Evacuations are, by their nature, difficult and disruptive at best. It does sound like TX made some mistakes with this one, even with the example of Katrina right in front of them! (For example, waiting all night before reversing direction on the main road out of town, closing auxiliary roads, etc.)
This is why govt's hesitate to order them, and why people hesitate to obey the order. Evacuations are not to be taken on lightly.
Especially in areas that experience lots of hurricanes, we need to weigh the specifics of each situation, and order/suggest evacuation only when warranted. Otherwise people start 'turning off' the evacuation notices!
Prayers to all.
Have no fear. Dan Rather has arrived in Houston. On KHOU live. His words : STEADY
Ugh! Just saw Dan Blather on KXTA... I had to hit the mute button quickly.
Believe it or not, I saw a hurricane evac route sign where I live. Where do I live? In West Michigan along the lakeshore. LOL.
When do other states usually begin contraflow?
The mistake was Blanco allowing the looting during Katrina, which caused people in higher areas of Houston to panic just as much as low areas.
Who wants to stick around in Houston and hope opportunistic gangs aren't lying in wait ready to loot, rape, kill for drugs, etc.
Takes time. Gotta let all the emergency personnel and needed supplies into the city, then post law enforcement at EVERY single on ramp. Hard to know what's right, but supposedly those on the ground know best when the conditions are right to make the changes necessary.
I just got to my future in-laws place north of Houston to ride out the storm. I live in Friendswood in north Galveston County. I was fortunate that my daughter's fiance stayed on the cell phone with me for hours using the transtar website to guide through parts of Houston that had little or no traffic.
I have a question. Why were the police stopping us from using traffic arteries like Telephone Road to get from point to point and instead turning us back to the freeways where people were waiting until they either broke down, ran out of gas or just plain gave up?