The Citizens of the Gulf Region of the State of Texas have shown themselves to have astounding generosity of spirit. Since Katrina, I have (for the first time I can remember) been proud to live here. Truly, the people here are wonderful. Before I say anything else with this post, I really wanted to emphasize that.
Okay. Thatâs clear. So here comes a major rant (you can just use the âbackâ? button on your browser if you want to avoid this).
I want to talk for just a little second or two about the abysmally short-sighted stupidity shown by this stateâs emergency preparations officials.
I â lowly citizen me â knew five days ago that there was a problem coming in the form of another probable hurricane. I also knew gasoline shortages sprang up immediately in the Katrina crisis. Do you think anybody might have thought to order up a little extra gasoline?
How about plywood? Theyâve been sold out, everywhere, almost all week. Was that all there was in the entire country? No extra stock anywhere to ship down this-away?
Hello?
Worst of all (and enhanced dramatically by that little gasoline snafu) – Thereâs been a staggering amount of patronizing about the State of Louisiana, and how they handled their emergency preparations. But I donât remember reading that evacuation routes were complete parking lots. For two days! Maybe somebody should have asked Louisiana how to set up the evacuation routes so they can point all lanes of traffic OUT?
Residents of the Houston metro area, and those unfortunates from the coastal communities below it, have been parked for 10 hours and more, in 100 degree (plus) heat, no air-conditioning⦠People are pushing their cars to conserve gas, or driving 5 miles in 12 hours!
What is going on here?? Stupid stupid stupid.
End of rant.
Texas – a Model of Emergency Preparedness
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I was watching the terrible traffic and I kept asking myself why aren’t they using contraflow?
Polimom:
Part of the problem is that many people are apparently confusing “mandatory evacuation” and “voluntary evacuation.” The folks in low lying and coastal areas needed to get out of those areas. It was not so necessary for all the others.
Remember also that there are a LOT more people evacuating. Over 1.5 million, according to the reports. And New Orleans didn’t have to evacuate THRU a city of nearly 4 million.
For me, I’d probably be staying put with my water, food, batteries, etc. if I was still in my old townhouse in Houston. Luckily, I’m in Arizona where we don’t get hurricanes.
Lee
Lee – you’re right, of course. My county (Ft. Bend) also has been under voluntary evacuation for several days… And 2 days ago, there was a reason for it. But in all honesty, there’s more than that going on. Houston’s mayor likely fell prey, also, to the “Katrita Phenomenon” – like all of us who are too close to events to think straight.
My fear is that when the next hurrican comes — and there is always a next hurricane — we will get the opposite effect. People who SHOULD evacuate will not and lives will be unnecesarily lost.
Sometimes the lessons learned from experience are the WRONG lessons.
God bless,
Lee
Lee:
Well yes… that’s pretty much what happened Katrina, yes? I see a clear need for a happy medium (and cool heads in crisis).