The Texas Evacuation Disaster

Posted on September 23, 2005

The massive evacuation from Galveston, Houston and low-lying areas by 2.5 million people has turned into a disaster all on its own. Today there is a 100-mile-long traffic jam that is full of furious Texans. It's hot. People are running out of gas. There is nowhere to sleep, to rest, to change a baby's diaper. Mayor Bill White admitted to journalists that "being on the highway is a deathtrap." The Mayor has asked the military to bring in tankers to refuel drivers along the way. But it's just too little, too late. And Rita is bearing down on the Texas coast.

Mr. White and the top official in Harris County, Judge Robert Eckels, admitted that their plans had not anticipated the volume of traffic. They maintained that they had not urged such a widespread evacuation, although only a day earlier they invoked the specter of Hurricane Katrina, and told residents that the "time for waiting was over." Officials also made matters worse for themselves by announcing at one point that they would use inbound lanes on one highway to ease the outbound crush, only to abort the plan later, saying it was impractical.
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The Houston area's two major air gateways, Hobby Airport and Bush Intercontinental, suffered major delays when more than 150 screeners from the Transportation Security Administration, facing their own evacuation concerns, did not show up for work. The agency later rushed in replacements, a spokeswoman said, but passengers, already burdening the system with extra luggage for their trips to safety, waited for hours to go through security. After crawling only 10 or 20 miles in nine hours, some drivers turned around to take their chances at home rather than risk being caught in the open when the hurricane struck.
The delays were long enough for one ice cream seller on I-45 to do a brisk business on the highway, as drivers left their stopped cars to buy refreshments. Cars overheated and broke down and others ran out of gas, worsening the crush.
"The question is how many people will be gravely ill and die sitting on the side of the freeway," said State Representative Garnet Coleman, Democrat of Houston. "Dying not from the storm, but from the evacuation."

This is simply absurd. Governor Perry should have immediately ordered that I-45 be made one-way on both sides of the highway, reserving one lane for emergency vehicles. And the airport mess is simply inexcusable. The Emergency Response Plan should have contained provisions to identify necessary personnel, contact them, and let them know that in an emergency they should go to the airport where there would be temporary shelters for them and their families. That way the workers are safe and the airports can be kept running as long as possible. Many injured and elderly need to be flown out, not driven out, but the lack of planning made that impossible.

One thing is for sure: no matter how many government officials go on CNN to congratulate themselves on what a great job they are doing, Texans know better.