Add to the above US 90 & 61, I-49 north out of Lafayette.
Posted on 09/24/2005 1:13:44 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Texas officials sketched a staggered, orderly evacuation plan for Hurricane Rita and urged people to get out days ahead of time.
But tangles still arrived even before the storm's first bands. Panicked drivers ran out of gas, a spectacular, deadly bus fire clogged traffic, and freeways were red rivers of taillights that stretched to the horizon.
In an age of terrorist danger and with memories of the nightmare in New Orleans still fresh, the Texas exodus raises a troubling question: Can any American city empty itself safely and quickly?
Thousands of drivers remained stranded Friday to the north and west of Houston. Many were stuck in extreme heat, out of gas -- as gas trucks, rumored to be on the way, or at least buses to evacuate motorists, never came.
They were frustrated, angry and growing desperate, scattered and stranded across a broad swath of the state as the monster storm bore down.
Houston is a landlocked city, an hour's drive from the Gulf of Mexico. Besides Houston's 4 million people fleeing, as many as 2 million were trying to get out through Houston from the coastal side.
In Galveston County along the Gulf, authorities set up three evacuation zones, beginning Wednesday evening and staggered at eight-hour intervals, with the most outlying areas to be the first to leave. But people in all three zones left early anyway, further snarling traffic.
From Houston, the main roads out of town -- Interstate 10 to San Antonio, I-45 to Dallas, and U.S. Highway 290 to Austin -- were turned into one-way thoroughfares only Thursday, and even then the one-way flow began well outside Houston.
"There were some weaknesses," Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat, acknowledged to KTRK-TV on Friday. "We could have fixed some of the elements ... a fuel truck that works, a mechanical system that works, and opening the contraflow," the term emergency officials use for routing all lanes in one direction.
Later in the day, Jackson Lee told The Associated Press the state should have asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for supplies. "I'm marching people all over looking for gasoline," she said.
Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Friday decision to order one-way flow came after the storm, originally on a track south of Houston, changed course and headed toward Houston instead.
"It's not perfect," he said. "I wish I could wave a magic wand and somehow transport people magically from Houston, Texas, to Dallas or other points, but that's not the fact when you have the type of congestion that you see in the state of Texas on a daily basis."
He added: "I think when you look behind later, it will be almost miraculous that this many people were moved out of harm's way."
State emergency management coordinator Jack Colley said 2.5 million to 2.7 million Texans had already been moved out of harm's way, and the governor said 25 buses would canvass Beaumont, looking for people still trying to get out.
By midday Friday, lanes were restored to normal traffic. Still, many remained stranded beyond Houston's suburbs.
Before the late 1990s, emergency management officials were in charge of evacuations, and transportation engineers had little interest.
But those engineers have devoted great energy to the problem since Hurricane Georges forced an evacuation of New Orleans in 1998, and Hurricane Floyd an evacuation of the Carolinas in 1999.
Rita and her hellish predecessor, Katrina, come in the new age of terror, as authorities try to draw up plans for clearing out cities in the event of deadly strikes with unconventional weapons.
Still, experts say the massive coastal zone that needs to be cleared of people before a major hurricane is far larger than the area to be evacuated after an industrial accident or a terror attack.
In the event of a nuclear accident, federal rules require the evacuation of a 10-mile radius around the plant. After a so-called "dirty bomb" nuclear detonation or the release of chemical or biological weapons, only the region immediately downwind of the release point would have to be cleared.
"Natural disasters just dwarf anything that's manmade," said Reuben B. Goldblatt, a partner at traffic engineering firm KLD Associates in Commack, N.Y.
Brian Wolshon, a professor of civil engineering at Louisiana State University, said Texas officials "will probably see there were things they could have done better."
But he added: "It's not economically or environmentally feasible to build enough roads to evacuate a city the size of Houston in a short time and with no congestion. It's just not going to happen."
It was a point all too clear to Bruce French, who left his home in Clear Lake, Texas, early Thursday, and ran out of gas just past Conroe, far short of his destination of Dallas. On Friday morning, he was stranded, waiting for fuel.
"They're giving $10 worth of gas if you're on empty and $5 if you have some," he said. "That's not going to get you very far."
-- -- --
EDITOR'S NOTE -- Associated Press writers Kristen Hays in Houston, Liz Austin in Austin and Suzanne Gamboa in Washington, National Writer Matt Crenson in New York and photographer Paul Sancya contributed to this story.
Add to the above US 90 & 61, I-49 north out of Lafayette.
Can you suggest any local web-sites with current traffic info, specifically I-10 flow from Schulenburg or Columbus into Houston?
Much obliged.
Can you suggest any local web-sites with current traffic info, specifically I-10 flow from Schulenburg or Columbus into Houston?
Much obliged.
Do you expect the people of New Orleans to teletransport themselves to Lafayette just before getting on I-49?
I-10 East to 59 Bottle Necks in Mississippi. Remember, the people of MS are evacuating too.
Over the lake? No way!
And I read that in an interview, the mayor or governor stated that the late opening of the contraflow lanes was a needed correction. A politician admitting and accepting responsibilty. So quickly.
i just saw I-10 on the news and it is jam packed...i would suggest maps.google.com and look for alternate routes...maybe you can find something there....they are saying on the news for everyone to stay away for now but i don't think anyone is listening..probably the sooner you get on the road the better...make sure you have gas though...good luck...hope this helps.
Put her at the top of that list...
As I said you all did great...... Maybe La can become the official model for evacuations in the future. I'm glad you made it and that you didn't have any problems....
Now you have a nice one...... I'm finished with this one, you can have the last word. The best to you.
Okay, now you're reaching. They have I-10 going east, I-10 going northwest to Baton Rouge and I-55 going due north. Whether it is easier to move half a million when there are three major thoroughfares or four million when there are five major thoroughfares (I-10 east and west, I-45 north and US 59 northeast and southwest) and a few extra days is an open question. But there's no doubt to me that the Houston/Galveston area evacuation went better than the New Orleans one. Whether that's because of less government incompetence or more advanced notice or just the fact that Katrina happened first, can be debated forever. The upper Texas Gulf Coast got everybody out of dodge and, from my observations, did so with few snags given the monumental task involved. I give credit to any offical of any party who helped to make that run smoothly.
2.8 million people evacuated within a couple of days; the highways were NOT built to handle that kind of traffic. There isn't a highway in the country that can handle that.
When designing a car, a building, a city, whatever, you can't choose everything. Many of the choices are mutually exclusive or at least mutually mitigating.
While that was the main route out, there were shots of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the causeway, and I-10E was also utilized.
It took one person you heard of 15 hours from NO.
It took one person you heard of 20 hours from Houston.
These are anecdotes which have nothing to do with actual averages. I know many people who got to Austin, Dall, San Antonio, Fort Worth, etc. in reasonable times. Anecdotes are meaningless garbage.
So, Mr. Stuck on Stupid, stick it in your ear and break it off.
Words to live by.
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