Now poor people can't get out of HOUSTON

[scoopmeister]

Already, poor people are trying to get out of HOUSTON. And there are no buses, and no one is helping them. It is New Orleans all over again:

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002372.html

Hortense Davis is waiting at the Houston Greyhound station for a bus that may not be coming.

The 73-year-old woman called the Red Cross today to find out what she should do about the storm. She said she was told to go to the bus station and tell them she had no money and needs to get out of the city.

"But when I got here, they said they couldn't help me," she said. "So now I'm just sitting here."

Davis is trying to evacuate to Lufkin because she is scared hurricane Rita is going to causing major flooding in Houston.

"I'm stuck here," she said. "I don't have anywhere else to go."

Hundreds of people packed the downtown Greyhound station tonight hoping to get a ticket to safety.

Carolyn Rivera, 62, said she bought a bus ticket to Dallas today, but when she arrived at the station she discovered all the buses were filled. So she called her daughter and the two women plan to drive to Arkansas tonight.

"There are so many people and so few buses," she said.

[sui generis]

1. sounds like a revenue scam for Greyhound

just like American Airlines - overbook overbook overbook.

[Sunkiss BlueStar]

2. This Country Does Not

have any decent evacuation plans. We need a distress highway built ASAP. The Chimp said Saddam could attack us in 45 minutes, and we can't even evacuate a city in a day!

[rurallib]

4. Well, they've only been working on it for 4 years!

What do you expect?

[whistle]

3. I thought the military evacuated everyone from the Houston Astrodome

....or are you talking about the poor people of Houston? Out of probably 2 million people in Houston TX, nearly 400,000 are below poverty level, about 19.2% vs 12.4% nationally. It looks like the south wants to get rid of their poor in the simplest way possible, by just ignoring them!

[KoKo]

5. And the Cables have been saying this evacuation of the poor is going

so well. It won't be like that disaster in NO's they say. NOooooooo!

[MissMarple]

6. They made such a big show of getting people out of Galveston.

Did Houston think they would get a pass because of that? Well, they do have today to rectify all that.

[Igel]

7. Mandatory evacuation areas are being evacuated quite nicely.

They even announced buses that will be available for those who can't get out otherwise. How they'll organize it, I don't know, since it doesn't affect me and I have enough to do (so why am I sitting here typing ... dunno ... denial? exhaustion?).

The assistance will not extend to those that do not need to leave. That's most of the city. The people that the media have interviewed have this horrible idea that all of Houston, apparently, will look like NOLA's 9th ward by Saturday night, erroneous views fed by the media. Most of the people interviewed have *not* been from mandatory evacuation zones, those at risk from flooding and the storm surge. And if Rita hits east of the bay, the estimated flood risk has probably been inflated.

The congestion to get out of the city is truly phenomenal: my wife is supposed to fly out this evening with our toddler, but people that live near here that were interviewed a few minutes ago on the radio haven't even gotten to the airport exit yet, even though they hit the road last night. It's a 40 minute drive at rush hour on weekdays, and I've made it in 30; they can't make it in 12 hours. They've instituted contraflow traffic on the main outbound arteries; that may help.


On edit: They just announced 9k people will be airlifted out from nursing homes, and homeless. Probably not limiting the people to those two groups, but examples of the kind of people that will be included.

[snappyturtle]

8. I know...

spent three and half months in Houston earlier this year. The whole time I was there I couldn't get over the fact that all they do is build MORE roads---no public transportation that I saw except for a short train route downtown. Maybe there are some local buses, that I don't know--not aware of any. I can't imagine how an old lady even got to the Greyhound station! I've got thirteen in-laws there--most are getting out today--hopefully--but two have decided to stay. Been in tears trying to talk them out of staying--especially when we have a beautiful motorhome sitting empty outside of Kerrville--on a gorgeous ranch to boot! Some can't get out and want to and others who can leave decide to STAY! Meanwhile, in northern MN we're going crazy with fear for them. I feel as if I'm going nuts!

[GOPAgainstGW]

9. Neither can rich people. - Read

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4846706&mesg_id=4846706

Post #48

[merci_me]

10. Our mayor, Bill White, whose been nothing short of fantastic,

despite Gov Rick Perry, promised in a news conference yesterday the poor and homeless would not be forgotten, as long as they made contact, so the city knew were to reach them.

This morning he said evacuation was in the works. It was just announced that this afternoon, they would be airlifting 9,000 poor and homeless, who chose to go.

OTOH, Perry has not been responsive to the needs of people trying to evacuate on non-city or county roads. He promised 170+ Department of Transportation people to expedite the evacuation. He delivered 30 people. Meantime, people trying to evacuate from the coast (mandatory) are finding that a 1 hr trip is taking TWELVE hours. The cars are overheating and running out of gas, further clogging the roads.

Just to show, I'm not saying this out of partisan ship. Our Republican County Commissioner has been working seamlessly with our Democratic Mayor.

M

[dogday]

12. They can call 311

and give them their information. Everyone trying to leave Houston but nobody is getting anywhere....

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. There don't seem to be small roads cross country in America

In Europe, there would be many, many small roads criss-crossing the countryside by which someone could escape. In America, it seems that everything gets channelled from the large urban and suburban areas into one or two big freeways and that's it. I heard that some people barely went 40 miles in 13 hours on the freeways. Someone could ride a bicycle a lot farther than that if there were small roads on which they could travel.