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Galveston's seemed to have worked, whereas Houston and Beaumont were obviously "successful" only in comparison to NO (and I admit Red, that defining success in those terms isn't exactly setting the bar very high). What did Galveston do well that the others malfed?Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Harvest
Very glad you and yours were spared the worst of things. Good luck normalizing again.
Seamus
My news called the evacuation close to a success...
Of corse we don't really get news here...
I wonder how succesfull they would be considered if the track of Rita had been different.
Galveston had a key advantage of not waiting at all: they ordered evacuation almost immediately and on Wed. it was made mandatory. Galveston had to evacuate through the same route as this section of Houston. They had some cooperation as Houston held off (as they should have) letting Galveston get under way. A similar thing was done for Pasadena, etc. It was later when Houston's mayor made more general comments that he effectively trapped the rest of us. His comments led many other Houston area residents to also flee--even though they were not in regions that were expected to have surge problems, etc. The genius gave us an evacuation notice on Thursday afternoon...when it was already 24 hours too late to escape. (There were 60,000 in Galveston, probably several times that many in this quadrant of Houston.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh
Those in Galveston did not fare as well as many have been led to believe. I know of a busload who spent THREE DAYS on a bus, going to Huntsville where they had been scheduled to shelter, only to be turned away because Houstonians had already packed that shelter. They bounced around and ended up back in makeshift independent shelter in Humble...which is how far my wife made it in her 10 hours of driving.
I'm telling you flat out, New Orleans had a more successful evacaution than we did. People who had transport made it out of New Orleans, that did not happen in the Southeast quadrant of Houston. If Houston had been hit by a heavy surge like the one that hit Biloxi and Mobile, we would have ended up looking very much like New Orleans (except the water would have receded here.) If our evacuation rate in this sector was over 50% I would be astonished. Folks fled to other parts of Houston, but the farthest anyone I've spoken to made it was Conroe. There were plenty of poor in Houston who couldn't get out and I've seen reports on them. Sure, buses got some, particularly in Galveston.
The State is going to have to figure out how to handle the traffic flow. It must be done throughout the routes, not just a short radius. You do not want folks trying to enter the stream even 100 or 150 miles out, as it bottlenecks from the end back if you are not very careful. It needs to be a staged evacuation, and it needs to provide better instructions to those in areas that are in less need of evacuation (stay put, board up.) Poor handling of the flow cut the capacity to a fraction of what it should have been. We had a mass rush for the exits.
Nationally, we need to work out a municipal and voluntary shelter network that can handle several million from any region within 48 hours. That way, the buses can have clear outward radiating destinations, as can individuals. Otherwise, the ends of the routes will block on you, and you create a giant parking lot for a large radius around any effected metropolitan area.
The evacuation of Houston was an example of how not to do it. Call it a lucky learning excercise (except for the 30+ unfortunate souls that I've heard of dying in the evacuation so far.)
Damn it seems that the point of rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse has been lost to civilian leadership on what to do with any plan to find its shortcomings.
For the State of Texas that Rita turned into a real-life rehearsal more then the diaster that it could of been. However there were still many tradgic events during the evacuation process and the State needs to be held accountable for its failure to plan, rehearse and execute the plan.
Glad to hear it all worked out for you Red Harvest since its obvious to me that the state government did not execute the evacuation plan like it was planned. I hope Houston does not re-elect this mayor.
Urrhhh... It simply churns my stomach to hear this.
I'm just happy that it didn't turn out to be too bad, and that you and your family is safe, even your property is intact. But I'm still disgusted by this. But I guess if the politicians can't relocate the blame, like some poor refugee, then they will simply downplay it, even ignore it. In this case it seems like a combination of the latter.