Instead of 50,000 Peeps stuck in the Superdome NOLA , we got 100,000 STUCK

[opihimoimoi]

on highways leading outta the Texas flood zones...

Then we got Texas Businesses who gouge..charging $7.00 for a bottle of water...

and, where are they heading for? No one seems to know....and will there be enough toilet paper?

WTF is going on there?? Damn....

[autorank]

1. Please tell me that there's no reason to believe those people

will be stuck when the storm hits. it occurred to me but I couldn't imagine that happening.

[skids]

4. Probably not, but...

...there will be more people stuck in Houston due to the traffic. A lot have turned back or decided not to get into the jam. I heard they are now being told to stay put.

However, everyone is acting like the projected path is going to continue to eek to the NE. There is NO GUARANTEE that it will do so. The error from the computer models changed direction multiple times with Katrina and we could still see a bad impact on Houston. Remember the "jog" Katrina did during landfall? Well Rita's done that several times already. There simply is no telling.

[Yupster]

28. It shouldn't, but

Houston is the fourth largest city in America.

Just imagine a mandatory evacuation of New York or LA or Chicago. Houston comes right after Chicago. It is a hugely bigger evacuation than New Orleans was.

[jobycom]

2. Just wait until they get stranded in Dallas and Austin for two weeks

If the storm does some real damage to Galveston and Houston, people won't be able to return for a while.

And if the storm turns out to be a dud, 2 million people will grumble about the incompetence of the evacuation as they all try to go home at the same time.

I wonder how many homes are being looted right now?

[Up2Late]

6. I wonder when the Road rage shootings are going to start

I heard some had been on the road today for 17-18 hours and only made it about 50 miles.

[jobycom]

7. OMG

I Can bicylce 50 miles in a few hours! That's gotta be horrible! There were stories of people who shut off their engines and pushed their cars along with the traffic to save gas.

[eridani]

21. Sounds like bikes with BOB trailers would be good for evacuation

At least for the able-bodied. And assuming kids are old enough to ride. Those suckers can actually hold a lot in the way of supplies, mementos, and pet carriers.

[Hubert Flottz]

19. Every home in America is being looted right now!

By BuXXON...

[Geoff R. Casavant]

23. I made a terrible joke to my wife

We're sheltering in place in Houston, and jokingly suggested a looting date at our local Blockbuster to get some fresh DVDs. Then she pointed out that since we're white, we wouldn't be "looting," we would be "finding."

Times like these, I guess you find your humor where you can.

[applegrove]

3. No. They have another 24 hours. They will turn people back when

the storm is too close to get safely away from. Some of the 50,000 in the Superdome were people turned back in their cars.

They can predict that part at least.

[Up2Late]

5. Sorry, more bad news. The forcast for the storm after landfall,Get this...

It's forcast to stop (become staionary over Dallas/Fort Worth), which equals Fooding Rains. For at least 3 days!

<http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/>

[jobycom]

9. That would flood Houston again.

The Trinity and Brazos Rivers would overflow downstream.

[Up2Late]

12. How full are the Reservoirs? Maybe they can control the...

...downstream flooding, if they are not too full?

[jobycom]

14. I don't know much about their systems.

I'm in Austin, I know the Colorado system seems to be low now. I don't know about the Trinity or Brazos. I lived in Dallas a while back when the Trinity flooded (it empties to the east of Houston) and I've heard of the Brazos flooding, but I don't know what it takes to flood them.

Sudden heavy rains can flash-flood a river beyond its normal flood control ability, though. That happened to the Colorado several years ago, when the lakes were low but the rain came so quickly it flooded several towns downstream.

[leveymg]

8. Welcome to BushCo's New Normal: Chaos, Disaster, War

[jobycom]

10. No kidding, everything he does is a screwup

He failed to get involved in the Katrina aftermath and made it worse. So to make up for it he over-reacted to Rita and has made the evacuation worse than the storm would have been for many people leaving. He has no ability to lead, and none to get anything done. His whole administration has been one glaring mistake after another. He fails to prevent a catastrophe, costing billions, then he overcompensates, costing more billions and making things worse. 9-11, Iraq, now the hurricanes.

The good news is people will stop thinking of Carter as a low point. Bush makes the difficulties of the Carter era seem mild. And Bush created his problems, coming off the peak of American peace and prosperity. Carter came after the failures of Ford and Nixon, and was doomed from the beginning. (And he still made advances in foreign policy and energy that made the way smoother for decades).

[NJCher]

18. re Carter

Just an FYI. I attended a lecture by Princeton Professor Kenneth Duffeyes, the author of three books on peak oil, and he said that we will soon realize that if we'd done what Jimmy Carter had told us to do, we'd experience a soft landing. Now, thanks to SUVs and the lack of leadership in finding a fuel alternative, it's a hard landing for us.

Over time, Carter's reputation will undergo a repositioning.




Cher

[Up2Late]

13. I think they call it a FUBAR

We are way beyond SNAFU:evilfrown:

[merbex]

17. FUBAR squared n/t

[TheVirginian]

26. How is this Bush's fault?

I'm not defending the guy, and will join in the criticism when he bungles this relief effort as well, but how is a traffic jam the fault of the federal government?

[pitohui]

29. how was it nagin's fault or blanco's

chimpy wanted to blame the little guy, now let him see it wasn't as easy as it seemed when he was talking out of his ass

our evac of louisiana makes this evac of texas look like a sorry joke, & we were criticized & called stupid?

all must be held to the same standards, texans do not get a pass after they insulted our intelligence & ability for doing what looks to be a damn good job of the vehicle evac at least == and everywhere we go to escape new orleans, we gotta go over a bridge!

our job was just as tough, we just did it better

bush is getting instant karma for the crap he gave louisiana

[bullimiami]

11. even in little old galveston they still estimate that 10% have not left.

so that is like 12,000 people.
that is equivalant to 65000 in NOLA.

who are they kidding when they point their crooked fingers?

[Igel]

24. On the other hand,

they went from door to door to evacuate people. For days they had busses evacuating those with no other transportion. They were joking that more first reponders were in Galveston (city) than civilians.

I'd guess there are maybe 10 people in Galveston that didn't want to stay, or whose employment doesn't dictate their staying.

The Galveston evacuation was done competently, very competently. I don't ask for perfection from people, merely competence. The state evacuation plan for Galveston was implemented better than I'd have expected.

[ladylibertee]

15. this is getting really ugly now.They are still on the roads as we blog.

[Up2Late]

16. O.K. This is screwed up, the roads in and around Houston are Empty

I finally found a web page with working traffic cameras, and the roads look empty.

If you know anyone who hasn't left yet, Call and wake their Ass up! Tell them to leave now!!!

<http://www.transguide.dot.state.tx.us/Traffic/allcameras.php>

[Hubert Flottz]

20. If you have a few extra dollars for the victims, in the less than ...

sunny south, Exxon will take care of that cash for you. Exxon needs the money more than those fleeing the floods.

Come, we go donate our life savings to the Oil Gods!

[opihimoimoi]

22. The Oil Gods don give a rats Balls about anything cept their PROFITS

Gas will sonn reach $8.oo a gal and we will pay...Those that cannot, will catch the bus or hitch hike....

[AzDar]

25. Time to put the Grownups back in charge, methinks. n/t

[rman]

27. aw, compassionate capitalism