Wrong. The track path changed late wed. night from Matagorda to Freeport and continued to change all day thurs. But, you wouldn't have known that if you just watched the local Houston weather guys. And that is my point. You need accurate info. if you are gonna make an informed decision. I got that info. from 3 sources; Max Mayfield, NOAA Website and MSNBC, not the local channels. As late as friday afternoon, CBS and ABC here in Houston were still saying Rita was just as likely to come up the Ship Channel. That was nonsense! Only NBC was by then giving more accurate forecast info.
" They were asked to leave, they were not forced to leave...Your argument assumes that people cant think for themselves "
Wrong again.I live in Clear Lake, an area that would have been devastated by a Cat 4 up the Ship Channel.The Mayors Alert Message rang at my house three times starting on tues. and on thurs. nite woke me up just after midnite. ALL 3 local TV stations were INTENT upon scaring the living shit out of people all the way through thurs. nite. After that, they starting advising people to " Hunker Down " and " Shelter in Place." You need the best and most current data to make an informed decision in a situation like this. The local media DID NOT GIVE IT to us. I've been in lots of disaster situations and it is usually 2 things that cause people to die, panic and the wrong information. People paniced here ( lots of them called me ) and hit the road when they didn't have to. I believe the death toll from the Evac now stands at 31. So far, I haven't heard of anyone in the Houston area being killed by Rita.
20'+ storm surges, 120+ mph winds, and falling trees killed a lot of people in MS. Not listening to warnings to evacuate killed even more in NO.
Galveston was never excluded entirely from the cone of potential landfall, at least not on the Weather Channel or Fox. They were worried up to the last few hours that the storm would keep on moving west rather than turning in.
When officials have to make an evacuation decision on Tuesday they can't base it on what they know on Friday; they have to use what info they have then.