[Bob Mc]

"Can any American city empty itself safely and quickly?"

No.

[Black Tooth]

"Can any American city empty itself safely and quickly?" No.

Agree. One can imagine what it would be like with no warning if several radition (dirty) bombs were set off in Houston.

There would be no "getting out" period.

[Tim n Texas]

One of my neighbors left early Thursday from Houston, for refuge with family in Memphis. They made it there in reasonable time and had no gas troubles... simply by staying OFF the evacuation routes. Another neighbor left for Austin on Friday, the day AFTER the traffic gridlock, and at a time when we were being instructed to stay put, and hunker down. Again, they sailed through with no trouble.

Sometimes it's better to NOT follow the "official" instructions.

[devane617]

Wolf Blitzer went nuts yesterday questioning a FEMA official on this topic. It seemed he thinks a better job could be done moving more than 2 million people out of a city with two major Interstates that were useable only to the north and west. What a dumb shit. The MSM will be doing back flips trying to figure a way to pin the orderly RITA process on bad planning.

[jimfree]

If cities were designed to be quickly emptied they would ill-serve other objectives. At a cafeteria you can indeed choose everything (within your budget).

When designing a car, a building, a city, whatever, you can't choose everything. Many of the choices are mutually exclusive or at least mutually mitigating.