TPM: Highways jammed, cars run out of gas during Houston evacuation

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_18.php#006606

September 22, 2005 -- 12:53 PM EDT

TPM Reader LH reports in ...

A brief note on the evacutation of the Houston area. Galveston and all the coast was successfully evacuated but Wednesday night there occured throughout Houston a simultaneous mass (hysterical) evacuation. All the freeways and highways leaving Houston are at a dead standstill as of 11am Thursday. People have been in their vehicles as long as 12 hours without traveling more than 40 miles. Now they are running out of gas and there will soon be another chaotic storm evacuation situation. The local government and the mayor of Houston don't seem to realize that cars need gas and folks need facilities. The city has waited too long to open all freeway lanes to outbound traffic. The truth is, the feds, state, and locals do not know how to evacuate a major metropolitan area. Another catastrophe is only a day away.

Let's hope not.

-- Josh Marshall

[txindy]

1. Whose responsibility are the freeways? They're state highways, yes?

Does it take the state to open contraflow lanes? Or can cities do it, themselves? I honestly don't know. :shrug:

[ohio_liberal]

4. States, yes

I don't think the city can do anything about it.

[txindy]

7. Oh, then, yippee. We have to depend on Gov. MoFo and his stooges.

That's that, then. No wonder contraflow is just now starting, if it has started, at all. People are stuck for 13 hours on a drive that normally takes 30 minutes, cars are over-heating and/or running out of gas, and the state can't open the contraflow lanes. That's just bloody brilliant planning, that is. I'm ever so proud that Texas is, as GoodHair bragged, "more prepared" for Rita than Louisiana was for Katrina. Riiiiiiiiight.

[halobeam]

2. Here's another thread regarding this.... there are a few threads on this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4847167

[Alizaryn]

3. My brother and his family are probably going to

stay put. They've been trying for over 12 hours to leave but I guess traffic is unreal and they are afraid of being stuck on the road, out of gas or over-heated like many others are.

[daninthemoon]

5. Monday morning QB, the mayor or whoever could have split the

evacuation up somehow. Name is A-F, address is odd/even..Might not have worked in a panic, but they might have had enough time. I sure hope this gets straightened out in time. God speed.

[txindy]

8. He did evacuate based on greatest possible areas of danger

But so many others decided to leave, too, so that took care of any orderly process. If the &#(!*%@ state had opened the lanes leading into Houston and made them contraflow lanes OUT, that would've doubled the current evacuation rate. But, no, that's too much to ask of Gov. MoFo. :eyes: I want Ann Richards back. Yesterday.

[AllyCat]

6. So even those with privately-owned vehicles are not immune

Maybe NOW the Feds will listen...and cut their taxes...:eyes:

See? Without an effective evacuation plan, no one is protected!

[targetpractice]

9. My Mom, sister and her baby are stuck in it...

They are on IH10 trying to head for San Antonio. I just talked to them on the phone.

I feel so helpless... I'm in NYC. They left Pearland at 5AM and are still on Beltway 8.

I don't know whether she should give up or wait and see if opening the eastbound lanes to westbound traffic helps.

I'm afraid she's going to run out of gas... She has an SUV :(

[Xenotime]

10. My sister can't leave..

because she is stuck. She worried she is goign to have to ride out the hurricane in her car. The ATMs are out of cash. Gas stations are out of gas. Another formula for disaster.

And I know people in Texas can carry handguns in their cars. So, there will be more shootings.

[targetpractice]

11. My mom & sis are panicking

For some reason, my sister's husband decided to leave later and he called my sister from his car and told her that when he was trying to change lanes a passenger in another car show a gun. So now he's scared shitless and wants to abandon plans to evacuate... and now my sister wants to as well.

They've been in standstill traffic since 5AM.

[Xenotime]

12. If people start dying on the freeway again...

This will be America's darkest hour.

[KharmaTrain]

13. And The Wingnuts Expect To Put Hundreds Of Busses On Those Roads?

This is a similar picture as to what I saw in New Orleans on that Friday and Saturday before Katrina hit...but at least that traffic was moving. This stuff looks like portable parking lot material

http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/cameras/camtext.aspx

Here are cams from around town (if someone else hasn't posted this)

Also...who are people heading north? The storm is tracking that way.

Of course it'll be the Democrats fault.