via KTRK-13:
Days after the evacuation that saw tortuous delays on Texas highways, Houston’s mayor says the handling of gasoline supplies is “totally unacceptable.”
Speaking to reporters, Mayor Bill White says that’s a part of the state plan that needs improvement.
People trying to flee north from Houston sat in traffic all day or night, and some ran out of gas. Those who could make their way to gas stations often found the pumps empty.
Texas Governor Rick Perry appeared to be trying to avoid a repeat of the traffic nightmare as he urged those evacuated from the Gulf Coast to hold off returning. Perry says a plan is being devised to stagger their return. He said more time is needed to restock fuel supplies and retailers drained as people headed away from the danger zone.
I don’t know the ins and outs of the evacuation plan’s fuel strategy, but I still think three big things factored into the massive traffic mess we saw: Hurricane Katrina was fresh on everyone’s minds, city and county officials were calling for voluntary evacuations (and as Beldar points out, the media didn’t clearly emphasize WHICH areas were included in those voluntary evacuation zones, and city and county officials didn’t clearly say that higher-ground residents should stay put), and late Wednesday Rita strengthened to a strong Category 5 aiming right for Galveston.
That’s why an evacuation plan built to move no more than one million people instead had to handle almost three million people.
RELATED: Ken Hoffman on local TV news overkill.
MORE RELATED: Tom Kirkendall is pondering evacuation strategy:
[…]if Alicia and Hurricane Carla in 1961 taught us anything, then it’s that most Houstonians survived the storms just fine by battening down the hatches and remaining in their homes. Moreover, the recovery from such a storm is facilitated in many ways by having property owners tending to their property immediately after the storm rather than attempting to find the back way home from afar.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I don’t get the criticism of “the media” for not emphasizing which voluntary evacuation zones were voluntary. There was a mandatory evacuation map that I saw EVERY media outlet reference that clearly spelled out mandatory evacuation. If people are too stupid to figure out that areas outside that map are therefore “voluntary,” then they are just too stupid to figure that out. Let’s not go blaming “the media,” which I thought did a pretty darn good job in this crisis (and I’ll wager that I watched and listened to as many hours of it as anyone).
Two days out, when it was 12 am and I was watching every media outlet say we had a category 5 bearing down for a direct hit, *I* wanted to get the heck out of town. And honestly, I appreciated Michael Berry’s candor in saying, “if you can get out, you should consider getting out.” Folks sitting 80 miles inland can question my (and his) judgment all they want. And my answer to them will be to stick it up their tailpipes.
We got very lucky, but I don’t think any inner loopster who made an individual decision to get out of town needs to answer to anybody in the Suburban Keyboard Corps of Cadets for that decision. Personally, I’m glad all of this new construction in the inner loop (like my home) wasn’t tested by a direct hit of a really bad hurricane. And I’m also glad the Alicia-tested home in which I rode out this storm didn’t have to take a direct hit.
It’s hard for me to question anybody who planned for the very worst to happen. Maybe that’s the backpacker in me. I assume the worst will happen, and count it as an outstanding trip to the woods if there are only minor snafus.
