Lessons come at high cost: 107 lives (Texas)

[DoYouEverWonder]

Sept. 29, 2005

A 2-year-old Houston girl crushed beneath the wheels of a pickup; a Sugar Land man and his two young children fatally pitched from their overturning car near Madisonville; a 92-year-old La Marque woman dead after losing consciousness while stuck in highway gridlock — Hurricane Rita's tales of sorrow rolled in Wednesday as the death toll climbed.

A Chronicle survey of Houston-area counties and those along major evacuation routes to the north and west indicates that at least 107 people were killed by last week's hurricane or died in accidents or from health problems associated with the evacuation of 2.5 million people from their homes.

One day before the expected announcement of a state-county-city task force to examine the problems that plagued the exodus, which doubled or tripled the travel time between Houston and other Texas cities, Mayor Bill White conceded, "I don't think the evacuation should be a disaster in itself."

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, whose wife spent more than 12 hours in a U.S. 290 traffic jam, called for a careful review of the evacuation. "People are downplaying the fact that people died in the evacuation and that is not right," he said. "Is the chance of dying greater in the movement than in the storm? That's the question we need to consider."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3374468


So more people died trying to evacuate, then from the storm itself? I guess the Texas evacuation wasn't such a huge success after all.

[Inland]

1. True, when you ask a million to move, without any plan or coordination

shit's going to happen. OF COURSE people are going to run out of gas, get in accidents, run out of water, get in health troubles as they and their doctors and drugs are separated.

People are going to die in an evacuation because of an evacuation.

When people criticize LA and NO for not ordering a mandatory evacuation, they should remember that water and wind are NOT the only way to die.

That being said, there should be ways to move a million people better than merely telling them to bug out and hoping for the best. Like minutemen with gasoline and dragging disabled cars out of lanes, for one.

[Bridget Burke]

2. Nobody said the Texas evacuation was a huge success.

WASHINGTON - Local disaster plans were "overwhelmed" by the 2.5 million people who fled in advance of Hurricane Rita, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels told a Senate committee Wednesday.

"We will be better prepared next time" with opening highway contraflow lanes earlier and creating a timed system of mandatory evacuations, Eckels told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Of the evacuation, which trapped thousands of motorists in hellish gridlock, Eckels said, "People were scared and they left, and I don't blame them."

www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/rita/3374438

Our Mayor was on TV yesterday, quite serious & vowing to have plans ready for next time.

The lessons learned down here will also help any other American city that needs to evacuate. How would Manhattan do? Or Los Angeles?

Edited to add: Any planning must include the State & officals from all the other Counties & Towns along the evacuation routes. The State sets up contraflow lanes & was supposed to have gas available on the route.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. I recall a lot of people patting themselves on the back

the day after Rita.

The M$M sure tried their best to make TX look good and LA look bad.

[MADem]

26. I agree, that was the theme

A little "inconvenience" with the traffic, but other than that, all was well is how it played.

[tanyev]

9. Gov Goodhair did.

Perry today called last week's massive evacuation from the Houston area a success, despite hours-long traffic jams and a scarcity of fuel
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/1754006.html

[Longhorn]

12. I heard several officials

including Perry on Face the Nation, I believe, claiming that the evacuation was a success. I told my husband that such comments were a slap in the face to all the people who suffered on the highways, especially the folks who died in that bus. They were claiming the evacuation was a success because no one died in the storm.

[Bridget Burke]

13. Yes, Republican Governor Rick Perry...

Whose State government was needed to set up contraflow lanes. Who said that gas would be available along the evacuation route. But, somehow, it wasn't. On local TV, we also heard of state ambulances promised to evacuate special care centers; they did not appear, so other provisions were made by the locals. And some state troopers requested for traffic direction also were too late.

City & County officials did most of the evacuation planning. They are smart guys & are working on improving the plans. Let's hope the can convince the State to play its part.

I've learned this from local TV & print media. Don't believe everything you see on the MSM.

[pitohui]

39. no one died in the storm cuz the storm didn't go there!

nothing to pat yrself on the back over, governor goodhair!

they evacuated houston only to see houston get about half a freaking inch of rain

we need better prediction science (if chaos theory even allows it), in the meantime ppl have to use their own discretion abt the value of an evacuation, it is not always the kneejerk best thing to do

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

21. There's plenty of tape of governer goodhair saying it was PRIOR

to all the commotion

[moc]

23. Many of the politicians are claiming it was a success

It's really infuriating for my friends in Houston. I'm glad to hear Mayor White admitting it didn't go well.

[Bridget Burke]

24. Our idiot governor is the only one I've heard boasting.

The local guys admit there were problems & are working on plans for the next time.

I'm in Houston, so I don't rely on national news to find out what's happening here.

[moc]

32. I'm just telling you what my friend in Bellaire told me last night.

And no, she doesn't rely on national news either.

[onenote]

40. World famous idiot sean hannity said the evacuation was

[wellstone dem]

3. People should not have

to die in this country because of evacuation failures, not after 9/11. All of these problems were predictable.

[Dhalgren]

5. Sounds like Texas might be a "dysfunctional state"...

[godai]

7. With one obviously dysfunctional family

*

[Bridget Burke]

14. It's a matter of getting State, City & County planning coordinated.

This article did appear in the Houston Chronicle. Work being done to improving the procedure will help any other US city that needs to evacuate quickly.

How would your city handle it?

[Dhalgren]

20. I was quoting Brown's testimony in congress the other day.

He said that the reason Louisiana suffered so badly with Katrina was because it was a "dysfunctional state". I try very hard to never blame the victims of any tragedy...

[Bridget Burke]

22. OK. I'm corrected.

But FEMA should have involved everybody in planning well before the event. Hurricanes are not unknown to the Gulf Coast & NOLA's special situation had been documented. Any state with problems should have been given special help--in advance.

But I realize that I'm trying to convince you that Brown is a fool & a crook. You already know!

[Dhalgren]

25. "Brown is a fool & a crook", man, exactly right....

"Fool and crook" would describe everyone in the Bush administration that I am aware of.

"The Republican Party - Fools and Crooks since 1968" Nice slogan, no?

[jbnow]

50. Give Brown some credit

He admitted to a great mistake there. He said his greatest mistake was not realizing until Saturday (?) how dysfunctional Louisiana was.

Yep, that guy knows how to take blame. In fact all his mistakes he testified to were not realizing how bad other people and agencies were. Creepy. But maybe next time Bush his asked if he had made mistakes he'll learn from Brown's example...

[mccoyn]

6. One big problem I noticed.

They announced the evacuation on Monday, but most people didn't evacuate until Thursday or Friday. A friend of mine who lives there explained that his work wouldn't let him off until Thursday afternoon unless he took vacation time. His job is nothing that could be considered critical in preperation for a hurricane. The only thing that would have suffered is the companies profits.

[Lindsay]

10. I wondered about people getting time off work

to evacuate. The last place I worked, the partners would have been "working at home" and getting the hell out of town, while the peons would be required to be in the office until the last minute.

[wryter2000]

36. What's more

Lots of people hung around to get paid on Friday so they'd have the money to evacuate. By the time they got paid, the stores were closed, and the gas stations were out of gas.

[dusty64]

8. Lessons! What

fucking lessons, thats what I'd like to know. :nuke: :grr:

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. How to screw more people

while making billions of dollars at the same time?

[Bridget Burke]

16. Lessons like:

1) Staging the evacuation so those who will DIE if we get a direct hit can leave first. Those in flood-prone areas should go next. Last, those in no real danger who want to avoid a scary event; their numbers swelled the flood of evacuees. (This includes having employers let people off work in time to go.)

My neighborhood doesn't flood & has no danger of storm surge, so I stayed. Since the storm turned, I had no problems. If it hadn't, I would have been scared but probably would have survived--just as I did last time.

2) Setting up contraflow lanes in time.

3) Ensuring gas is available.

City, County & State officials are already working on these plans.

Now you know!

[SillyGoose]

15. This is precisely the sort of thing that should be looked into by an

independent commission. A non-partisan review of this and other disaster response failures could *gasp* actually lead to improvements in the system. I hope the republicans will catch a clue on this fact.

(nominated)

[Bridget Burke]

17. Did you read the article?

One day before the expected announcement of a state-county-city task force to examine the problems that plagued the exodus, which doubled or tripled the travel time between Houston and other Texas cities, Mayor Bill White conceded, "I don't think the evacuation should be a disaster in itself."

People involved belong to both political parties. Nobody expects any help from the Feds.

[SillyGoose]

18. Yes, I did read the article. This problem with the evacuation in Texas

will likely repeat itself in any major city in the nation unless the problems are identified and corrected. I see this as an issue that has the potential to affect us all nationwide and it should be looked into by an independent commission on a federal level.

[Bridget Burke]

19. OK. Do you want the local & regional people who KNOW the problems...

To bow down to FEMA? What sort of "independent" commission would our current Federal government set up? Perhaps Bush can fly down in Air Force 1 to give some direction.

What are the evacuation plans in your locality?

[SillyGoose]

29. Nope, I don't want local entities to bow down to FEMA but I want

some sort of meaningful non-partisan review at the federal level (in addition to state-level reviews) of the evacuation process of large cities in general and disaster response plans to identify problems that occurred and to seek solutions to those problems. I think it has become apparent that we, as a nation at all levels of government, are not fully prepared to handle large disasters adequately and we need to get our acts together to prevent a replay of what we've seen with the responses to Katrina and Rita.

Would we get a truly independent federal review under the current political leadership? That's debatable but its a heck of a lot better than what we've got now with Brown acting as paid consultant to review his own performance.

I live on Florida's gulf coast and have no doubt whatsoever that if my area had to attempt an evacuation like Texas had to for Rita we would have the exact same results.

[FlaGranny]

33. The absolutely worst place in the US

to try to evacuate from is Key West. They do it at least once a year. Only ONE highway out. Granted, it is a small city.

[Bridget Burke]

41. If we had a real FEMA, it would be a good idea.

Most of the problems with the evacuation have been identified & people in our region will not wait to get permission to make plans.

Why don't you write your local government & see what their plans are?

[SillyGoose]

49. I'm glad to see your local leaders are on top of this. The mayor seems

like a pretty good guy. You're right - I will contact my local government about our evacuation plans here. Will be interesting to say the least.

[DoYouEverWonder]

44. Yes they did and they should expect help from the Feds

This is why we've spent billions on the new Dept of Homeland Security and HS created a new plan, effective 03/2005 to address these problems.

The people on the local and state level were led to believe that the Feds would automatically provide certain types of assistance in these situtations. The National Response Plan says they would. However, in the case of Katrina, the Feds withheld assistance on purpose. It is impossible for any plan to work if you refuse to follow it.




Planning & Prevention

National Response Plan

"One team, one goal...a safer, more secure America"
"One team, one goal...a safer, more secure America"
The National Response Plan establishes a comprehensive all-hazards approach to enhance the ability of the United States to manage domestic incidents. The plan incorporates best practices and procedures from incident management disciplines—homeland security, emergency management, law enforcement, firefighting, public works, public health, responder and recovery worker health and safety, emergency medical services, and the private sector—and integrates them into a unified structure. It forms the basis of how the federal government coordinates with state, local, and tribal governments and the private sector during incidents. It establishes protocols to help

* Save lives and protect the health and safety of the public, responders, and recovery workers;
* Ensure security of the homeland;
* Prevent an imminent incident, including acts of terrorism, from occurring;
* Protect and restore critical infrastructure and key resources;
* Conduct law enforcement investigations to resolve the incident, apprehend the perpetrators, and collect and preserve evidence for prosecution and/or attribution;
* Protect property and mitigate damages and impacts to individuals, communities, and the environment; and
* Facilitate recovery of individuals, families, businesses, governments, and the environment.

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0566.xml

[crispini]

27. This is very, very important.

Kicked and nominated.

[Catherine Vincent]

28. All I know is I hope they have a better plan for next time of an

evacuation of a large metropolitan city like Houston. Yes there were 2.5 million people that evacuated but there were more that decided to stay and ride it out. I can't imagine if say, about 4 million would have evacuated.

[AnneD]

30. There is a lot of arm chair quarterbacking going on......

Mayor White is an excellent leader. Many of the things they did during this evacuation were lessons learned from Katrina (having shuttles and allowing pets on those shuttles) and from previous planning. They had a sound reason for all that they did, BUT the reality is that we had to evac millions and millions out of the way. Without sounding too cruel, considering the numbers evaced vs the potential loss of life and the sheer number of evacuated...that was a low number. Of course you don't want any loss of life but in reality, that may not be possible. I trust Mayor White will glean through the data and plans will be refined. The return of those that left was better and I think the plan to return was followed more than the evac plan.
Perry is a self serving pudknocker that thinks he is a governor (couldn't get decent legislation passed and both houses and gov are repubs).
In our favour is the fact that the GOP admin screwed up in LA and they didn't want it to happen again. FEMA has not scored points here, we are still having problems. They did a bit better than they did in NOLA, but that is such a low bar.

[Tight_rope]

31. Houston evacuatee here...let me tell you...I saw hell!

Fortunately, I was smart enough not to take the main roads. I left at 4:30am on Thursday for Killeen, TX, a 3 hour drive that took 7 hours. I was fortunate. I know someone who left at 10am Wednesday and didn't get to Killeen until 12noon on Thursday. I left hours afters him and still got there before him.

[wryter2000]

34. Franken's take on this last Friday

"They've had four years to plan how to evacuate a city, and this is the best they can do? Mayor of Houston, 'Run for your lives!' Mayor of Galveston, 'Run for your lives!' Mayor of Brownsville, "Corre por su vida!"

That about sums it up. 0 planning for evacuating a city except for "Run for your lives!"

[Bridget Burke]

42. Actually, there was an evacuation plan...

www.houstontx.gov/mayor/press/20050921a.html

Obviously, it needs work. Our Mayor (& officials from other cities & counties involved) has already gotten started on making better plans.

Isn't Franken cute. They speak Spanish in Brownsville! Actually, they speak it in Houston, too. Along with quite a few other languages.

[lastliberalintexas]

35. I won't be surprised if that number goes even higher

And unfortunately, so many of the people who died in the evacuation were elderly who succumbed to the 100 degree heat and stress on their bodies. Very sad.

And we also had 6 family members die from CO poisoning from their generator here in Beaumont. They haven't released any other numbers from Bmt yet that I've heard, but I expect there to be some from either people who couldn't/wouldn't leave and/or from those who died from heat exhaustion and strole in the aftermath. We've had record heat down here, and FEMA has sat on its ass and even prevented the locals from getting the needed equipment and supplies.

Yes, methinks Goodhair spoke too early.

[bamacrat]

37. How the hell was a 2 yo run over. oh people suck.

[AnneD]

38. Pickup trucks are up high

2 yr olds are low to the ground. There is zero visability. Not sure of the particulars. It could have happened as easily as putting the truck in reverse and not seeing the kid or the toddler was in the bed of the truck, truck but in reverse and top heavy toddler falls out and is crushed. There are many ways those wee ones can get hit.

I sent my daughter out on Wednesday with friends and stayed to do more prep. I didn't make final decision until Fri. Neighbour decided to go to Dallas on Fri am and made it there in 6 hrs (a smidge longer than normal) on I45. She called to let me know the traffic conditions.

I heard some of the horror stories. People do crazy things when they panic. You can have an evacuation plan but human nature is unpredictable.

[DoYouEverWonder]

43. Anyone know how many people died EVACUATING Katrina?

I heard one report of 3 elderly people on a school bus to Baton Rouge who died. I don't recall hearing about anyone else.

It would be an interesting comparison.

[lovuian]

45. Lessons come at high cost: 107 lives

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3374468

By CINDY HORSWELL and EDWARD HEGSTROM
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

A 2-year-old Houston girl crushed beneath the wheels of a pickup; a Sugar Land man and his two young children fatally pitched from their overturning car near Madisonville; a 92-year-old La Marque woman dead after losing consciousness while stuck in highway gridlock — Hurricane Rita's tales of sorrow rolled in as the death toll climbed.

A Chronicle survey of Houston-area counties and those along major evacuation routes to the north and west indicates that at least 107 people were killed by last week's hurricane or died in accidents or from health problems associated with the evacuation of 2.5 million people from their homes.

One day before the expected announcement of a state-county-city task force to examine the problems that plagued the exodus, which doubled or tripled the travel time between Houston and other Texas cities, Mayor Bill White conceded, "I don't think the evacuation should be a disaster in itself."

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, whose wife spent more than 12 hours in a U.S. 290 traffic jam, called for a careful review of the evacuation. "People are downplaying the fact that people died in the evacuation and that is not right," he said. "Is the chance of dying greater in the movement than in the storm? That's the question we need to consider."


Calls for improvement
At Wednesday's City Council meeting, Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a Clear Lake dermatologist who spent 19 hours in evacuation traffic, called for the immediate opening of all highway lanes to outbound traffic in the event of a future evacuation.

"It was like we were yelling 'fire,' " she said of last week's evacuation, "but all the doors were shut."
more...

More died evacuating than in the storm!!!

In the evacuation there was traffic lights still on when they should have been shut off!!! No Police anywhere to be seen on the Highway it was shocking!!!

[malaise]

46. My problem in all this is

that more attention is paid to a missing girl in Aruba than the 105 people who died in the 'perfect evacuation' or the large number of not yet picked up dead in NOLA. These lives don't count. What matters is the spin and the poll numbers.
I need to double check but I think more people died in the Houston evacuation than in all the hurricanes from Andrew until Katrina (including Caribbean territories).

[sando]

47. The only lesson learned

Was that Bush and cronies made sure they had everyone thinking that they were doing everything possible to show the world that they had learned the lessons of Katrina ... And what do we have as a result? NOTHING

[Sgent]

48. Hurricanes

are notorious for changing course at the last minute. People die when evacuations are en masse. The weaker the people are -- nursing home, hospital, children, etc., the worse it gets.

Now explain to me why this shouldn't have come under Nagin's consideration when he delayed a forced evacuation -- and still got out 30% more than anyone expected.