I’m certainly no fan of Nagan-redux, but Turner is right, and Abbott is not...evacuating a city this size when we do not have a storm surge (which is where the sea crashes through homes) and when don’t have high winds is insane. It’s easy to watch TV and think the whole city is under water, as was much of the case with New Orleans, but it not. We do have localized drainage problems, resulting in a backup of water in many locations, but it is far, far, from the dykes going down as happened in New Orleans.
I live in the Houston area myself. I disagree with your take on the governor and mayor. Listen to what they both said. Both of their recommendations were not the best but were not the worst advice either.
Neither wanted mandatory evacuations. Abbott wanted people to leave who were in a position to do so. That’s not millions. Turner wanted everyone to stay put. A lot of people should have left. A lot did.
Here is what Abbott said:
“Even if an evacuation order hasn’t been issued by your local official, if you’re in an area between Corpus Christi and Houston, you need to strongly consider evacuating.”
That was good advice. I had family in Texas City that did just that. Good thing they did too, because the area is under water.
I stayed put because the area I am in traditionally does not flood. There are areas like S Braeswood that always floods. Abbott’s advice applies to these folks.
But what did Turner say?
“Please think twice before trying to leave Houston en masse. No evacuation orders have been issued for the city.”
That’s not bad advice either. I personally evacuated a bus load of people from the area when we did have a mandatory evacuation, and it was a disaster.
On Saturday he Tweeted: “Cannot emphasize enough how much flooding there is on roadways you are endangering yourself and our first responders by being out stay put.”
Maybe some people had to adapt to situation on the ground. This message is not appropriate. If there is not a mandatory curfew, he should have advised of the risks of being on the road.
On Friday he was advising people in low lying areas to rearrange their furniture.
On Thursday he was simply saying “no evacuations.”
The key here is that we did not need everyone to evacuate. But people in low-lying, flood-prone areas should have. People in mobile homes and trailers that could leave town or stay with family elsewhere should have been advised to do so. And they should have been advised to do so by Thursday.
Overall, staying put was the best option for most people because Houston is not below sea level like New Orleans. But many people should have received better, more clear, more succinct advice from the governor and mayor.
But I will add one last point on this topic. The liberal media and leftwing politicians politicize everything. I don’t think Abbott is doing anything other than looking out for people. I think Turner is also trying to help but is also treating this as an opportunity to grandstand and try to one-up the governor with the help of the media.
This should not be a time of playing politics, but for some people politics is their life. It’s all they know.
I looked at Turner’s Twitter feed. He’s retweeted Obama pretending to still be president.
To his credit, Turner did retweet a Univision interview with the Governor in Spanish. Otherwise, I’m not seeing much effort on his part to coordinate with state and national agencies.
If Obama was president, there is no doubt in my mind that Turner and Obama would be sharing photo ops by now.