Gulf Coast Hearings - Evacuation issues

[southerngale]

Let's hope the evacuation issues are resolved before another hurricane threatens the Gulf coast, or anywhere. I have to commend this area though, and sadly...I'm certain the evacuation success was due to what everyone had just witnessed with Katrina. With images of people stranded on their roofs still fresh in everyone's mind, I don't think anyone wanted to stick around to see what Rita would bring here. Over 90% evacuated from here and that most assuredly limited the number of deaths. If people had been in some of the homes and businesses destroyed by surge, wind, tornadoes or fallen trees, they couldn't have possibly survived. I hope that this season will assure that everyone takes every hurricane serious and gets out of harm's way. As sad as it is to see where you live devastated by a hurricane, it can be rebuilt. Your life can't.

Best of luck to everyone during their recovery. I think this Christmas will actually be more special for many of us. It will certainly be less commercialized.

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Hurricane Task Force Prepares for Beaumont Meeting

Reported by Scott Lawrence
December 2, 2005 - 4:13PM

By T.A. BADGER= Associated Press Writer=

SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ At several hearings along the state's Gulf coast, the governor's evacuation task force has heard plenty about the frustrations of those trying to escape the area ahead of Hurricane Rita.

On Friday, the subject changed to the burdens of those who opened their doors to people displaced by Rita and its devastating predecessor, Hurricane Katrina.

Where should those with special medical needs go? How should evacuees with criminal records be handled? And what about the four-legged companions traveling with their now-homeless owners?

Those questions go into the hopper with the issues raised at previous hearings to help the 14-member panel of businessmen, academics and public officials, appointed in September, fashion its recommendations to Gov. Rick Perry on ways to improve future evacuation procedures.

"If we adopt everything suggested, somewhere, sometime, someone will benefit," said state Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, one of the task force members.

The task force's 90-minute hearing here was the fifth of six scheduled, with the final gathering to take place Dec. 13 in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area, the place hardest hit by Rita.

San Antonio, well outside the path of either storm, ran a series of shelters that at one point bulged with more than 10,000 people chased from their homes by each of the two hurricanes.

The city and Bexar County were generally praised for their efforts to house Katrina and Rita evacuees in ways that did not lead to the stresses that occurred in the overcrowded Superdome in New Orleans and Astrodome in Houston.

"Sometimes you have to make a decision and go with it," said Mayor Phil Hardberger. "Luckily we made a lot more right decisions than wrong decisions. ... It taught us the need for communication _ constant communication."

Nelson Wolff, Bexar County judge, urged the panel to push for a more rigorous identification system to better account for people with special needs and those with criminal backgrounds or drug-abuse issues as they're sent to different parts of the state.

Wolff said about three dozen evacuees are getting methadone treatment in the county.

Others among the eight people to testify said those with medical needs should be registered in their home area so they can be routed straight to hospitals instead of going first to shelters not equipped to deal with them.

Animal advocates also suggested that emergency pet-care facilities be designated, as many evacuees brought their dogs and cats with them.

http://www.kfdm.com/engine.pl?station=k ... local.html