My fear for Houston

[hicksta]

What will happen if This season or next season we have another strong cat 4/5 knocking on our doors. Not as many people will leave and sit threw the traffic. It took us 13 hours to go 38 miles.. It was stop and go. If we do have a mandatory evacuation agian, many people will stay because "it didt hit us last time" or "i dont want to sit threw that traffic" I feel a disaster coming fairly soon. It took us 27 hours to get to dallas.... If a hurricane does hit us in the next few years. I fear the death toll will be huge.


Derek

[LAwxrgal]

I agree Hicksta.

It was the same thing here. We had a bunch of near-misses. Two that instantly come to mind are Georges and Ivan.

Georges was supposed to come up the gut (mouth of Mississippi) as a lumbering cat 3. Massive evacuations were ordered. The highways became parking lots. The storm turned east at the eleventh hour, hit Mississippi hard.

Ivan was a monster hurricane that was at one time forecast to hit New Orleans. Massive evacuations were ordered. The highways became parking lots. The storm turned east, hitting the Florida Panhandle hard.

People here figured big storms missed us. They always "turned away" at the last minute.

A lot of people said they weren't going to evacuate the next time.

Then along came Katrina.

Nuff said.



I hope Houston keeps the lessons that we learned from Katrina and applies them to future evacuations.

[f5]

thats why so many people had to be rescued in N.O on top of the death toll beacuse they felt like all the canes will take a jog east toward mobile/pensacola

[hicksta]

Makes you wonder if its meant to be that way.....

[FunkMasterB]

A lot of people said they weren't going to evacuate the next time.

Then along came Katrina.

Nuff said.

Even then, the storm didn't hit NO directly. In fact, after the storm, it looked like NO avoided yet another direct blow. Then the levee broke...

[Weatherfreak14]

I wonder what it would be like if N.O would suffered a direrct blow?

[susan]

I understand people were scared but people north of town in Conroe, Katy and other places not in the direct path of a storm surge should at least let the people along the coastal and bay areas of the area get out first.

[inotherwords]

I also think the city will improve the evac process. There should have been contraflow earlier, and it should have started much farther south than it did.

I think it would be a mistake to assume that most people won't choose to evacuate next time because of the traffic. I think this experience will just as likely result in a lot more people evacuating earlier to avoid the jams.

[hicksta]

I also think the city will improve the evac process. There should have been contraflow earlier, and it should have started much farther south than it did.

I think it would be a mistake to assume that most people won't choose to evacuate next time because of the traffic. I think this experience will just as likely result in a lot more people evacuating earlier to avoid the jams.

Yea i agree with you, the contraflow didnt start till noon thursday.

[skysummit]

A lot of people said they weren't going to evacuate the next time.

Then along came Katrina.

Nuff said.

Even then, the storm didn't hit NO directly. In fact, after the storm, it looked like NO avoided yet another direct blow. Then the levee broke...

But that's all part of the fear and that's one of the MAJOR reasons why they tell us to evacuate. They're afraid the levees will overtop and then breech. That's what happened for Katrina, and Rita. Now, for Rita, areas to the south of NOLA received a 9' storm surge that still has many areas underwater.

[inotherwords]

I also think the city will improve the evac process. There should have been contraflow earlier, and it should have started much farther south than it did.

I think it would be a mistake to assume that most people won't choose to evacuate next time because of the traffic. I think this experience will just as likely result in a lot more people evacuating earlier to avoid the jams.

Yea i agree with you, the contraflow didnt start till noon thursday.

I can also believe that maybe they didn't know how to stage it. Maybe they should have made 45 and 59 both one way north for certain hours, I don't know. And make 1-10 outside the loop one way in the "get out of town" direction of one's choice. But planning how to safely do a contraflow situation in Houston's normally insane traffic, and on a weekday at that, would be a job that I definitely would not want. What a nightmare that would be.

[Galvestongirl]

I know that I will never, ever, ever evacuate again. I have never evacuated before, and will not do it again...All the crazy people on the road, it was hot, car would overheat, so no A/C, took my 2 daughters 28 hours to go to centerville, me 14, to to to newbraunsfels......I dont care if it is a category 50, I am not leaving, I will mark my body with a sharpe, put an axe in my attic and ride it out...Everyone around here has said the same thing. Many people gave up and did go home to ride it out. The powers that be that said this was well organized apparently were not in the traffic situation....and there was more to it than just sitting in bumper to bumper traffic going 1 mph. people were following ambulances down the center just to get moving, thus, magnifying the problem. some elderly were dying in cars from dehydration, children hugging up to their mothers crying on the side of the road when their car broke down. My heart was bleeding for them and I could have picked everyone of them up if I had the room. Not worth it to me.

[susan]

If I see a Cat 4 or 5 headed in our direction again, I would leave. I left early. I live along Galveston Bay and I did not like the percentages given on Monday so I packed early Tuesday and took off to a safer place. That said, however, I sat on Beltway 8 for a long time due to traffic lights. I watched as 5 lanes turned into 2 lanes and the bottleneck that caused. I also watched people who rode up the "turn only" lanes to cut in line and in doing so made that transition much more difficult than it needed to be. I have been worried for years of the massive jam Houston would have during an evacuation. Most of our highways are under construction and people drive like jerks during the normal traffic we face on a daily basis..The evacuation jam should have surprised no one.

[beachbummer]

I also think the city will improve the evac process. There should have been contraflow earlier, and it should have started much farther south than it did.

I think it would be a mistake to assume that most people won't choose to evacuate next time because of the traffic. I think this experience will just as likely result in a lot more people evacuating earlier to avoid the jams.

This lesson should have been learned with Hurricane Floyd (was a 5 state evacuation!) and the Carolina's......the contra flow started too late and people were stuck on the Interstate with no fuel / food / etc. moving at a snails pace. Personally for me it took 4 1/2 hours to get from Myrtle Beach to Little River SC and that was with National Guard at every intersection!!......seems lessons aren't learned or maybe time just passes and we forget!

[susan]

This is just not a Houston area problem. Countless hurricanes have come and gone and you see the same thing..People stuck in traffic...Houston is the 4th largest city in the USA with well over 2 million people in it's city limits but that does not account for all the area counties...

Harris County — 3,644,285
Fort Bend County — 442,620
Montgomery County — 362,382
Galveston County — 271,743
Brazoria County — 271,130
Liberty County — 74,821
Waller County — 34,757
Chambers County — 28,227
Austin County — 25,800

[curtadams]

I know that I will never, ever, ever evacuate again. I have never evacuated before, and will not do it again...All the crazy people on the road, it was hot, car would overheat, so no A/C, took my 2 daughters 28 hours to go to centerville, me 14, to to to newbraunsfels......I dont care if it is a category 50, I am not leaving, I will mark my body with a sharpe, put an axe in my attic and ride it out...Everyone around here has said the same thing. Many people gave up and did go home to ride it out. The powers that be that said this was well organized apparently were not in the traffic situation....and there was more to it than just sitting in bumper to bumper traffic going 1 mph. people were following ambulances down the center just to get moving, thus, magnifying the problem. some elderly were dying in cars from dehydration, children hugging up to their mothers crying on the side of the road when their car broke down. My heart was bleeding for them and I could have picked everyone of them up if I had the room. Not worth it to me.

I'm very, very sorry for the horrible time you had. Houston was overevacuated. Both authorities and public panicked and evacuated over a million people from inland high ground where evacuation wasn't necessary and that clogged the system because you just can't evacuate everybody from a place like Houston.

BUT

Some people DO need to evacuate. Those in surge-vulnerable, flood-vulnerable, or non-sturdy buildings MUST, MUST evacuate. It's OK to go to a nearby shelter on high ground but you can't stay. If your moniker is accurate, PLEASE, PLEASE evac for any major hurricane. The next evac won't be so bad because the high-grounders will know to stay.

[jasons2k]

I really think the process will go more smoothly next time. I will say, the officials did EVERYTHING they could to correct the situation and they did. By Late Thursday everybody was GONE. Hardly the situation of people still trapped on the causeway and I-45 as the storm came in.

The road from my house to I-45 was a parking lot for about 24 hours, but by Friday AM it was eerily calm outside.

I truly, passionately hope that those who were caught in the "mess" won't use that as an excuse not to leave.

In fact, next time I am MORE likely to leave and I'll tell you why. I am about 80 miles inland and we just had TS winds here, gusts to 65 maybe 70. We had several homes in the neighborhood with trees on them. Our clubhouse/community center was virtually destroyed (4 trees on it).

I DO NOT want to be here if a solid Cat 1+ rolls through here. I would be risking my life - seriously. I see the damage in places like Jasper and could not imagine being in the storm for that.

This was my first storm and we got off lucky. It was intense enough for me.

If you are on Galveston and stay you are nothing less than suicidal IMO.

[susan]

I live on the bay. I was supposed to leave and did so. People further north panicked and left the same time the coastal people left. Was it a problem? You bet. But I fail to see how city officials could have kept Bob from Katy from leaving when he was not supposed to and how they could be blamed for Bob in Katy or Sue in TheWoodlands or Pete from Sugar Land leaving at the wrong time..How do we prevent these folks from leaving??? I mean, the Governor down to local guys have begged us not to come home yet if we live below I-10 and east of I-45 but people did and schools in that zone will be open Wednesday and my company (also in the "do not come back until further notice") opened today and expect everyone to be there tomorrow. Would you not call that a mixed message? I live on Galveston bay, was asked not to come back until further notice but my child is expected to be in school Wednesday and I am expected to be back at work Tuesday.

[no advance]

If I lived anywhere on the gulf coast I would be gone. Storm surge!

[susan]

Well, the problem in the Houston area was people who lived in zones not in the path of a storm surge evacuated at the same time as people along the coast. For instance, people in Kingwood evacuated but they are 75' above sea level. But people in Kingwood live in a forest and I imagine Cat 4 winds would have had every house with a tree on it or through it. Parts of Houston flood during a thunderstorm so even though they may not be impacted by the actual storm surge, they would have been flooded anyway. So for us it is not a clean cut as to who should leave and who should stay. It is scary to think about, really.