Houston and Galveston streaming info

[Oreo]

http://www.weatherserver.net/hurricanecenter/

I'm watching Channel 2 out of Houston. They're showing the parking lot that is I290. Ridiculous.

Cars are overheating, people are running out of gas and there's no end in site. If these people are caught in the storm, they're going to be screwed.

[Igel]

1. Yep. Thank you, CNN and Fox.

So many are convinced that images of NOLA's 9th ward are in store for any burg that experiences a hurricane.

[bee]

3. ummm. is that sarcasm?

These people are responding to mandatory evactuation orders as far as I know.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

4. Some are mandatory

But the majority live in areas with only a voluntary evacuation. Can't say as I blame them for getting out tho.

[bee]

5. exactly. Id get the hell out of there too. n/t

[Igel]

7. I'm staying.

I don't blame those that want to get out for getting out.

But what the voluntary evacuees have done is overload the system--voluntary evacuations typically have low response rates--making life very difficult for those that must evacuate.

At least the traffic was most of the way cleared out by 12 hours before the high winds are due to hit.

[Igel]

6. No. It's serious.

At least a couple hundred thousand of the people that were stuck in traffic have no need to evacuate, probably most of them. They left because they were afraid; my wife and kid are gone because my mother-in-law is afraid, and she lives in Phx.

Hundreds of thousands needed to evacuate. But the roads, and the plans, didn't expect the incredible response rate that the *voluntarily* evacuation order triggered.

If they had, maybe they would have blocked off roads so people who wanted to avoid inconvenience and low risk wouldn't have interfered those that wanted to avoid high flood waters and high risk.

The east Texas counties had the exact same clog: the local authorities were cursing the idiots fled because they'd have had to dodge the occasional falling tree, but got in the way of thoe that had a longer evacuation, and were fleeing a likely 20 foot storm surge.

[Oreo]

2. Channel 2 showing a new model pulling it straight into LA

Weatherman said it's a newer model that did pretty well with the hurricanes in FL last year.

Still officially calling it to come in just NE of Galveston