Rita Evacuation A Cause For Concern, Officials Say

[sabra]

http://www.channel3000.com/news/5018124/detail.html

Rita Evacuation A Cause For Concern, Officials Say

WASHINGTON -- Outside of Houston, there were 14-hour traffic jams as residents rushed to flee Hurricane Rita's path.

And Houston had two days of warning.

...

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, said that the nightmare scenario is a terrorist attack on a major American city and evacuation is needed without warning.

...


White House press secretary Scott McClellan has rejected the notion that there were problems with Houston's evacuation and said the president was told it had gone well.

...

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the response to the hurricanes should have been much better.

[adarling]

1. Movie versions of rescue

I think we are all accustomed to the movie versions of emergencies and how there is someone there to save the day. Sept 11 put people in a state of shock that i have never seen before, but there was something there that almost seemed mass confusion like. I mean, look at our President, he didn't get to New York till like the next day after flying over the entire country to keep himself away from it. It is showing an incredible sign of how lazy our society still is after Sept 11. in forcing a change in terms of evacuations and how incredibly incompetent our government is. Its kinda like how in elementary school we had the tornado drills, but people wouldn't take it seriously and just walk around or sit up and not even worry about it, and those stopped after elementary. I always asked why aren't we preparing for tornadoes, and the teachers were like, who knows, probably not enough time. Says alot doesn't?

[area51]

17. "how incredibly incompetent our government is."

Yes, how incredibly incompetent the GW Hoover govt. is. And remember how they said "the adults are in charge now"?

[gademocrat7]

2. But Scotty doesn't think there were problems?

Running out of gas, dehydration and being stranded in the blazing heat isn't a problem??? Oh middle class and poor people don't count.

[liberalhistorian]

3. No, it's that poor

little tiny-brained frat boy Bushie cannot stand any bad news at all, so they always have to keep him insulated and paint the world with rose-colored glasses for him. Remember his top people having to hold a conference call to decide how to tell him he was gonna have to leave his five-week vacation a couple of days early because of Katrina? Yeah, some real fucking "leader" we have here.

[Skidmore]

19. With *, it is beyond the sensibilities of a "frat boy". This individual

is insane. The people behind him bought a brand--the "Bush" name--and they pay and work to keep the insane SOB under control and schooled in the jargon. This man is a drug-addled sociopath. TO quote Marc Maron, "We have an active user in the WH."

[babylonsister]

4. McClellan rejects the notion there were problems?

Too bad he hadn't been sitting in one of those cars, preferably the one that the inhabitants died in from inhaling carbon monoxide because they couldn't move. :grr:

[wellstone_democrat]

7. "saying its so don't make it so"

said a wise old man I once knew. These people think that maintaining their idiotic argument in the face of evidence alters reality. It doesn't. People *suffered* in that farce of an evacuation. Try telling people who spent more than 24 hours going from Houston to Dallas that it went well you bloviating son of a bitch.

[babylonsister]

9. And let's not forget those that died and their families.nt

[damntexdem]

11. Just consider: as Bush's voice touts the success of the evac, ...

all those good-Republican Texans who sat through the I-45 parking lot debacle can, sooner or later, get a good earful about what their GOP administration thinks about them.

[young_at_heart]

5. My daughter was there........it did NOT "go well"

It was a nightmare for just about everyone in Houston.

[SillyGoose]

6. I am so sick and tired of these people denying obvious problems!

There were problems with that evacuation and we all saw it. All they know how to do is deny deny deny.

[electron_blue]

8. I've no doubt this is true!!!!

Gawd - Scotty's quote says it all:

"the president was told it had gone well."

[damntexdem]

10. Who are you going to believe? The press secretary, or ...

the drivers who sat in traffic for 24 hours and ran out of gas?

How about the Texas official who said that they couldn't use the south-bound lanes for many hours of evacuation because some drivers wanted to go the other way?

[Ronnie]

12. Doesn't the White House get cable?

Or do they just watch Fox? Does anybody know if Fox reported on the Houston evacuation mess? I tried to watch Fox once, and I'm still in recovery.

[Lindacooks]

13. Oh, I'm quite sure Bubble Boy was TOLD it 'went well'.

Remember, he has hissy fits if told of ANY problems, AND he turns on the messenger.

[theboz]

14. It took me 20 hours, and I nearly had to beat the hell out of people

The evacuation from Houston was much worse than the news is reporting. I may write about it sometime, but it was really really bad. It took 20 hours for my wife and I to get from Houston to San Antonio, the northern route was worse. We also saw lots of bad things, lots of people fighting at gas stations, nearly including me.

[Catherine Vincent]

16. The news was reporting how bad it was. You could see the long

lines, the parked cars and then at night the scores of headlights leaving Houston. And my niece that left told me how she almost got into a fight with a guy at a gas station, he was trying to cut in line. This tyhpe of stuff is scary. You should write about your experience on your blog. I know it was close to hell.

[theboz]

21. A guy tried to cut in front of me in the line

What made it worse is that my wife was outside the car in the grass, and he nearly ran over her. Needless to say, if he had hit her, he and his whole family would have lost their lives that night.

[Bridget Burke]

23. If he had "hit" your wife, you would have killed him & his family?

What if he had not killed her?

Were you evacuating a Storm Surge area? Do you live in a trailer? Or did you just flee in generalized terror?

Edited to add: I hadn't read your post pointing out that he was a "Chinese guy."

Do you live in Galveston or Seabrook?

[marions ghost]

18. please write about it

it is through the first-person stories from situations like this that we will begin to face the ugly truth. Americans are so tired of the lies, the denial, the insistance that black is white. We are starving for reality and honesty.

[theboz]

22. It was mostly just chaos

People were breaking out in fights over the lines, other people were driving through the grass trying to break in lines, the gas station's bathroom was locked so people were defecating on the side of the road, no police were near, and then the incident that really pissed me off was when this Chinese asshole tried to cut me off in line and nearly ran over my wife who was outside the car. This was in Luling, which is not too far from San Antonio. The gas stations that had gas that were further east were even worse. I saw lines that were over a mile long of people waiting for gas. My other really big complaint was a lack of a police presence. The only place I really saw police other than occasionally on the contraflow exits was at one town where a local cop got on a speaker and was announcing what the next exit with gasoline would be. Other than that, there was no government at all anywhere.

[MissMarple]

15. This scenario was right out of a 60's nuclear war novel.

Actually, several of them. These jerks have no learning curve. It's just the politics, the shadows and mirrors, not the responsibility for the American people.

[Bridget Burke]

20. The Evacuation Plan was meant for people in Storm Surge areas...

But many from safer parts of the city decided to leave. (I stayed at home & didn't even lose power.)

The gas crunch just made it worse. The State said they were sending gas tankers--which did not materialize in time.

Our Mayor & the County Judge have said they will look at plans for Next Time. They are fairly smart guys & will probably come up with better ideas. Perhaps they can get the State to implement contra-flow lanes earlier.

Edited to add: Here's an article about the evacuation. The State of Texas Department of Transportation needs to look at more timely use of contraflow lanes. (This is NOT something local authorities can do.) And "staged" evacuations might be needed--following the saying "run from the water, hide from the wind." Storm surge is the killer & those at risk don't know if they are the target until too late. Others may wish to avoid a scary night at home--but will probably be safe. Perhaps they should evacuate later.


www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/rita/3369453