Another Evacuation Story, this one on I-10 headed west. [View All]

[Bouncy Ball]

This one is not mine, either. I had to take out some identifying details which were too much information, but other than that, here it is.
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It's 7:52 am and we are NOW here.

We left at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

I'm too worn out...bewildered...angry...upset...worried and so forth right now to detail it all. I need to process it all. But I'll tell the base part.

In short, we started out with full gas tanks. Yes, we prepared. Yes, we followed evacuation orders.

AND THEN THEY ABANDONED US!!!!!!!!

It took us over 24 hours just to GET OUT OF HOUSTON.

The evacuation plan was shit.

We are fortunate; our cars are pretty fuel efficient. But even they couldn't sustain stop-stop-slight go-stop traffic. It was pretty hard on the body too.

The kids were MAJOR troopers. Absolute angels. You cannot believe what all they endured for two days STUCK IN A CAR with nothing more than Gatorade, water, apples, tortilla chips, and granola bars.

And we were the lucky ones.

We could not find gas...and believe me we tried.

My mother---thank God---met us in a small town called __________. She brought food and reinforcements. We felt sure we could find gas because at that point we were down to a quarter tank each. But we thought we were far enough away from Houston.

No dice.

We ran out of gas in a town called Columbus. And we had to abandon the cars on the side of I-10.

We met TONS of other people in the same situation.

As per instructions, we all called the number on the back of our driver's licenses for roadside assistance. Cell service was very spotty, the line was overwhelmed with calls, and getting through took four people dedicatedly dialing for an hour.

At 9 p.m. Thursday night we were PROMISED gas trucks were on the way to help stranded motorists.

I listened in growing fury to the news as officials call this a "good evacuation" and "running smoothly other than traffic and so just be patient" and "we won't leave anyone stranded."

ALL LIES!!!!!!!!!!

We waited until 1 a.m. and then started calling police, TX DOT, and other agencies.

There is NO GAS. NONE on the way.

Their advice?

Find shelter.

They suggested we CAMP OUT on the highway in our dead cars.

Us and HUNDREDS of others. People were desperate, hungry, thirsty...it was like a horror movie.

Our nearest neighbor was a sweet lady who had just had cemo that day and she sat in the heat waiting for that promised gas.

How did we get out?

We took what we could from our cars into my mother's. She had enough gas to get us to outside Austin, where we were able to get 5 gallons.

By amazing miracle, we were able to get back to the cars.

The gas got us to here.

So we are lucky ones.

The highway (I10) is a parking lot of dead cars and bewildered, exhausted and paniced people hwo followed what they were uspposed to do.

They are LYING in the media.

This is a clusterfuck and when that hurricane hits today I'll tell you where the casualties will be: stcuk motorists who tried to evacuate and broke down (car overheated, broke down, ran out of gas, etc.)

Perry is evil and I want him to spend one red minute on our shoes over the last two days and then see how much he likes his platitudes.

I can't even tell.

It was like post-apocalypse. You couldn't even buy food or get medical care.

My baby is still sick and we are leaving now --- and may I say how DISGUSTING I am --- to go to the doctor.

We're okay. We're safe. We're very fortunate.

I felt ill to abandon one more thing after abandoning my house and belongings and it is a weird relief to have my car at least.

I feel sick sick sick to think of all the people back there who are stuck.

Police won't help.

TXDOT won't help.

I don't knwo about other evacuation routes personally. I do knwo people who made it out other ways much easier than us. 14 hours to Dallas is the best story I heard.

Anyway clearly I am typing fast and very upset. I do have to go.

We are okay and I'll update as I can.