Highways are always jammed before hurricanes. They knew it would happen. I have very deep feelings about the mess on the highways there. If the jams continue, those people could be without recourse to shelter as the storm nears. I get very angry, as they should either admit it or fix it someway.
I even wrote a diary about the subject here recently. It is serious to me as many of us had friends stuck on highways last year with nowhere to stay. One couple we know just went to a hospital and stayed the hurricane out in the lobby, miles away from home.
If you evacuate, you are running the chance of heading toward the hurricane if it changes direction. If you don’t evacuate you could be in worse danger. Here is the diary I wrote previously, just some random thoughts.
Evacuation is taking chances
I found this article just now at the Houston Chronicle. There are things in this article that could have been fixed. They happened in Florida last year, they knew it would happen. I know some things are too massive to do anything about, but they don’t have to act clueless about them.
Havoc from hurricane comes early to Houston’s freeways
Trying to leave Houston on I-10, Ella Corder drove 15 hours to go just 13 miles today. Noticing cars out of gas littering the freeway, she turned off her air-conditioner to save fuel, but the 52-year-old heart patient worried the heat and exhaustion were taking a toll on her.
“All I want to do is go home,” she said tearfully by cell phone. “Can’t anyone get me out of here? ”
“This is the worst planning I’ve ever seen,” said Julie Anderson, who covered just 45 miles in 12 hours after setting out from her home in the Houston suburb of LaPorte. “They say we’ve learned a lot from Hurricane Katrina. Well, you couldn’t prove it by me.”
When you go on that highway in 100 degree weather, you are taking a chance on many things. You need to find gas to keep going. If you run out of gas on the highway, what do you do? Where do you go to get out of the heat? Where do you go to the restroom? And on and on.
It took Tiffany Heikkila 11 hours to drive with her 5-year-old son from Sugar Land to Austin. She left at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and saw gas station lines backed up all the way to the exit ramps. Motel parking lots were packed, too.
“All along the way, cars were pulled off on the shoulder with drivers sleeping. They had their doors open with one foot hanging out of the car..”
Gary and Sunni Markowitz left Bellaire at 5:30 a.m. today but after six hours were only 20 miles into their trip to Austin.
With three children and a nanny in tow, they had run through three DVDs and all the snacks in the minivan. Their two-year-old was crying. A friend who was following them in another car with two children had already turned around for home, and they were seriously thinking about it themselves.
Countless others regretted their decision to leave. After nearly 14 hours on the road with her husband, two sons and dog, and nowhere near their destination of Paris, Chava Buse was ready to return to their Sugar Land home. They family stopped at five gas stations in a futile search for fuel before finding long lines and flaring tempers as people waited in the scorching heat to pay…..”
A Texas friend shared an email from her friend who has met with FEMA in Dallas. There was one paragraph from it that really concerned me a lot. It furthers my fears that people evacuating will be victims all over again with no place to go. Someone also shared this at DU, and it is legit.
“Also, FEMA is not in the business of sheltering. The RED CROSS is ready to open new shelters for the Rita evacuees but cannot do so until the city gives the word. At last night’s meeting Dallas city officials had not done so and had no plans to do so. Thus, at this time no new shelters will open in Dallas.
Rumor Control: Houston Katrina evacuees still in shelters are not coming to Dallas. They have been airlifted to Fort Chafe, Arkansas.
This picture is from Florida last year before France, the 2nd hurricane to hit us.
This picture is from Texas today near Houston. You simply can not tell the difference. They knew this would happen. They have not worked on evacuations issues anywhere, and it has been a year.
The highways in Texas today look no different than the ones in Florida did last year.
