Times-Picayune: Texas can use lesson in evacuating a city

Interesting article, please read the entire piece:

http://www.nola.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/print082364.html

Excerpt:

The New Orleans couple came to that conclusion about halfway through a 17-hour attempt to evacuate Houston on Thursday as Hurricane Rita headed for the Texas coast.

After about seven hours of baking inside their rental car in 95 degree heat on Interstate 45, they were out of food and water and had watched as their once-filled gas tank hit the "half" mark. Yet they were still inside metro Houston, no more than 35 miles from their starting point, and stuck in a line of traffic that appeared to stretch the entire 250 miles to Dallas - but was moving at inches-per-hour.

<<< snip >>>

"I think they could have taken page from Louisiana's book on this one," Monica Ponoroff said. "They should have called Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin and asked them 'How do we evacuate a city?' because they sure didn't have a clue.

"Eventually we gave up. We turned around and went back to the apartment. And that took us three hours. What a mess."

The Ponoroffs' ordeal is one of millions that will be told about what could be the greatest traffic jam in American history. They never saw it coming.

I don't know how anyone can say with a straight face that Houston's evacuation went so beautifully. It was a clusterfuck.

Exploding buses aside, as long as nobody appears to be suffering overtly in the aftermath, they're proclaim the evacuation a success.

We have a helluva lot to learn about moving people out of an enormous city in an orderly fashion.

After Katrina, righties were gloating about China's efficiency in this area.

That's right... they were pointing to China as an example. I just don't get conservatives anymore.

They waited way too long to open all lines of I-45 northbound. I know several people who have just decided to wait it out in Houston.

from the original westbound lanes. The Police had every U-Turn access blocked off and wouldn't let people cross over into the nearly empty contra-flow lanes. Stupid, really stupid. Some people tries to cross the median and became stuck there screwing things up even more.
Moe Hannity aside, this did NOT go well and it seemed like no one knew what the hell they were doing. New Orleans' evacuation actually DID go better than Houston's, you'd think they would have learned, but no, they actually made things worse.

necessary to evacuate Houston. It seems it was done more for political reasons. Sitting in cars for hours in the intense heat, running out of gas, going two miles per hour and in the end getting nowhere and I hear it being called a success while listening on TV. I just heard on CNN that the president is requesting what the strength of Rita is right now. I'm sure he's sitting at his command post to come to the rescue.

saw a way to make a lot of $$ on gas sales in the panic. And bottled water sales, and all the other junk they sell at gas stations along the freeway. Oh, and the hotel chains made a pretty penny too.

happened in New Orleans. Seems the people in Houston were damned if they evacuated and damned if they didn't.

I use the words fear mongering. Everyone is so afraid of their own shadow. I decided to get more information about this storm before I left and to avoid the traffic. Too many people going to the same place at the same time.

empty, and I feel a little guilty because we had a mandatory evac for Wednesday and Thursday. When the storm turned early Thursday we decided to stay put. We were never in danger of flooding. My biggest fear was the extremely high winds and tornado possibilities.

But i realize that the point is that not everyone can wait, because then everyone might be trying to get out at the same time. Our choices were extremely limited without a hotel room for our autistic son and family to go to.

I don't know what we'll do next time.

Bush RW base.

At least 35%, with their heads constantly up their asses, and their hearts in the gutter. :-(

It was obvious that the Texas leaders were clueless.

Believe it or not. there are actually quite a few thinking people in Texas. Judging by our elected leaders, I know it is very hard to accept. Soon the average Texan will vote for real leaders instead of falling for empty Republican rhetoric.

I really think the 'no new taxes" crowd (other than that percentage of single issue voters) will opt for competence this time. We are way overdue for a sea change here. We are energized and working hard to make it so.

and I know a lot of intelligent people from Texas. They are all democrats. A niece and nephew were born in Texas. Funny my nephew and his young family moved to Atlanta since he returned from Iraq so that they could live in my sister's basement flat to facilitate his postponed college education. Thankfully, my beloved niece left Houston in August to teach in Costa Rica for a year. She loves traveling. She too plans to live in Atlanta when she returns.

Like you I agree that a change is coming.
edit -sp.

Apparently Cuba can evacuate a million or two people without breaking a sweat. Of course, arrogant Republicans wouldn't demean themselves to actually learn something from Fidel or say, the French!

I don't know about Fidel, but we lately had a flooding in my region due to a storm (category two). Even if it cannot be compared to the hurricanes, the evacuations and rescues worked very well.

I think that the major reason is "government": the local authorities, equivalents to FEMA, police, firemen, military are organized and trained together within a single structure commanded by the prefect (kind of a governor). He has the power to seize property (mostly vehicles and places for sheltering) which is returned and reimbursed after the disaster.

All this is a pure civil affair, no private interests are involved besides being mandatory required.

Hurricane Katrina
Can we learn from Cuba's lesson?
The tiny country is known for its hurricane planning that keeps its people prepared and fatalities low.
By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN, Times Senior Correspondent
Published September 9, 2005

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/09/Worldandnation/Can_we_learn_from_Cub.shtml

Before Hurricane Ivan whipped Cuba last year with 160 mph winds, the government evacuated nearly 2-million people. The result: not a single death or serious injury.

Although it is a small, poor country in the heart of hurricane alley, Cuba is widely acknowledged to do an exemplary job of protecting its 11.3-million residents from natural disasters. Its record is even more impressive in light of the catastrophic loss of life that the United States - the world's richest and most technologically advanced nation - is experiencing from Hurricane Katrina.

"Cuba has not only an evacuation plan but an overall plan for hurricanes and other disasters that is very well developed and organized," says Dusan Zupka of the United Nations' International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction.

"I would dare to say that Cuba is a good example for other countries in terms of preparedness and prevention."

you can't hold up the example of a country that none of us is allowed to visit & say how great they do things

it may be true, it may not be true, there is no way of knowing

i guarantee if they evacuate 1 million ppl & they say "no one" died, they are lying, my friend died evacuating katrina, w. traffic flowing, not because of any mistake made in evacuating (his town was completely underwater & he would have died if he stayed) but because a certain # of ppl die in transit from heatstroke, heart disease, blood clots (from sitting), etc.

fragile old ppl who need machinery for life support are esp. at risk but my friend was only in his fifties & he didn't know he had a heart condition

if the cubans or whoever are going to brag on themselves, at least make it real, or we are just going to dismiss it as propaganda & exaggeration

i still remember the 80s when china claimed they had no venereal disease, it's like, come on make it a little believable

This was written by a Times report - not Fidel. Of course given the track record of the media in this country - it could very well be propaganda. However, why is it so hard to believe that "lo tech" can work well during an emergency. I find that very believable.

Also, you can go to Cuba if you want. They have two or three resort areas for tourists. You can go through Mexico or Canada. Just don't tell Bush.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Thanks for the welcome and the hug. It is really nice to have long time users welcome newbies aboard. Most other sites, newbies just don't exist.

the Texas politicos are patting each other on the back about the successful evacuation.

Were they watching the bottleneck/log jam that I was watching?

And the sheeple will believe it.

I just don't get it . . .

Republicans think its great. They weren't stranded on the highway for hours and hours and hours.

and all walks of life. And I bet they are all PISSED at what happened to them when they heeded the advice of their "state and local" officials who should have spent less time with their hair mousse and back slapping and more time figuring out how to get fuel to a 100 mile long parking lot filled with sweltering, scared Texans.

was pissed. listening to the radio we kept hearing how tanker trucks were coming to deliver gas but we didn't see any in the 28 hours it took us. there was no gas at any station from beaumont to lufkin. and then the officials were blaming people for evacuating without a full tank. hell, people had full tanks and burned all the gas sitting in stopped traffic for hours on end in the almost 100 degree weather.

Don't sit by passively while they discuss how "flawless" your evacuation was.

:eyes:

highway going out. At the first sign of trouble, a voluntary evacuation. Then mandatorily evacuate all tourists and non-residents in layers...starting from the beach, then progressing to the higher ground areas. Next, trailer parks, boats, beach to high ground. Then last, all other residents. And don't waste time on those who don't want to go.

The Keys go through this every summer, sometimes two or three times a month. And it goes as smoothly as clockwork. Granted, we don't have as many residents as Houston, but during holidays and special events, the islands are filled with tourists. We had a biker poker run last week that became part of the Rita evacuation. A little louder than normal, but smooth as silk.

the back. That just jinxes you for the next time.

Jeb would just as soon see us washed out to sea.:)

and it seemed to go really well.

I also liked some video I saw the next day: a guy in his dinghy, going to the liquor store!

You guys really have the correct attitude and I loved my short vacation (several years ago) in the Conch Republic.

i've been saying this for 2 days so, yeah, i agree

i was v. impressed w. my experience of evacuating by car for katrina, it could not have gone better

I wondered all about those inbound lanes and why they weren't opened sooner.