news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050923/ap_on_re_us/rita_texas_exodus_hk1
AP Best-Laid Plans Weren't Enough in Texas By ERIN McCLAM, AP National Writer 1 minute ago HOUSTON - It was envisioned as the anti-Katrina plan: Texas officials ske tched a staggered, orderly evacuation plan for Hurricane Rita and urged people to get out days ahead of time.
Click Here But tangles still arrived even before the storm's first bands. Panicked d rivers ran out of gas, a spectacular, deadly bus fire clogged traffic, a nd freeways were red rivers of taillights that stretched to the horizon. In an age of terrorist danger and with memories of the nightmare in New O rleans still fresh, the Texas exodus raises a troubling question: Can an y American city empty itself safely and quickly? Thousands of drivers remained stranded Friday to the north and west of Ho uston. Many were stuck in extreme heat, out of gas as gas trucks, rumo red to be on the way, or at least buses to evacuate motorists, never cam e They were frustrated, angry and growing desperate, scattered and stranded across a broad swath of the state as the monster storm bore down. "It's been terrible, believe me," said Rosa Castro, who had driven more t han 17 hours by Friday. Her sister behind the wheel, seven children in t ow, the car was idling on less than an eighth of a tank of gas. Castro was hoping to get gas from a lone Shell station that had opened no rth of Houston. "I wondered why so many people in Katrina didn't move in time, and now I' m in the same situation," she said. Houston is a landlocked city, an hour's drive from the Gulf of Mexico. Be sides Houston's 4 million people fleeing, as many as 2 million were tryi ng to get out through Houston from the coastal side. In Galveston County along the Gulf, authorities set up three evacuation z ones, beginning Wednesday evening and staggered at eight-hour intervals, with the most outlying areas to be the first to leave. But people in al l three zones left early anyway, further snarling traffic. From Houston, the main roads out of town Interstate 10 to San Antonio, I-45 to Dallas, and US Highway 290 to Austin were turned into one-wa y thoroughfares only Thursday, and even then the one-way flow began well outside Houston.
voting record), a Democrat, acknowledged to KTRK-TV on Friday . a fuel truck that works, a mechanical system that works, and opening the contraflow," the term e mergency officials use for routing all lanes in one direction.
"I'm marching people all over looking for gasoline," she sa id. Rick Perry said Friday decision to order one-way fl ow came after the storm, originally on a track south of Houston, changed course and headed toward Houston instead. "I wish I could wave a magic wand and someho w transport people magically from Houston, Texas, to Dallas or other poi nts, but that's not the fact when you have the type of congestion that y ou see in the state of Texas on a daily basis." He added: "I think when you look behind later, it will be almost miraculo us that this many people were moved out of harm's way." State emergency management coordinator Jack Colley said 25 million to 2 7 million Texans had already been moved out of harm's way, and the gover nor said 25 buses would canvass Beaumont, looking for people still tryin g to get out. By midday Friday, lanes were restored to normal traffic. County Judge Rob ert Eckels said traffic had cleared and authorities needed lanes in both directions for emergencies. Still, many remained stranded beyond Housto n's suburbs. Before the late 1990s, emergency management officials were in charge of e vacuations, and transportation engineers had little interest. But those engineers have devoted great energy to the problem since Hurric ane Georges forced an evacuation of New Orleans in 1998, and Hurricane F loyd an evacuation of the Carolinas in 1999. Rita and her hellish predecessor, Katrina, come in the new age of terror, as authorities try to draw up plans for clearing out cities in the even t of deadly strikes with unconventional weapons. Still, experts say the massive coastal zone that needs to be cleared of p eople before a major hurricane is far larger than the area to be evacuat ed after an industrial accident or a terror attack. In the event of a nuclear accident, federal rules require the evacuation of a 10-mile radius around the plant. After a so-called "dirty bomb" nuc lear detonation or the release of chemical or biological weapons, only t he region immediately downwind of the release point would have to be cle ared. "Natural disasters just dwarf anything that's manmade," said Reuben B Go ldblatt, a partner at traffic engineering firm KLD Associates in Commack , NY Brian Wolshon, a professor of civil engineering at Louisiana State Univer sity, said Texas officials "will probably see there were things they cou ld have done better." But he added: "It's not economically or environmentally feasible to build enough roads to evacuate a city the size of Houston in a short time and with no congestion. It was a point all too clear to Bruce French, who left his home in Clear Lake, Texas, early Thursday, and ran out of gas just past Conroe, far sh ort of his destination of Dallas. "They're giving $10 worth of gas if you're on empty and $5 if you have so me," he said.
Police arrive to refuel stranded motorists on north-bound Interstate 45 in The Woodlands, Texas, Friday, Sept. In the massive evacu ation from the Texas gulf coast many motorists ran out of fuel on the hi ghway while fleeing in preparation for Hurricane Rita.
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