Thinking about NO this morning.

[Debau2005]

I was watching the chaotic mess of people trying to get out of Galveston and low lying Texas areas. They were stuck on roads for 20 hours, running out of gas, and probably patience. The current administration states that more people should have left NO before Katrina. After seeing the mess in Texas, I am not sure that NO citizens would have been any better off. And now people leaving Texas are finding that they are stuck on the highways in the path of the storm!

Our Department of Homeland Security has done a FINE job...
:sarcasm:

[bryant69]

1. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out

And whether or not Texas one of the reddest of the Red states will be subjected to the same sorts of criticisms as New Orleans.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Igel]

2. State evacuation plan.

Parallel to the one Blanco activated.

Texas won't get the same degree of criticism. They evacuated early, they cleared the nursing homes and some hospitals from the mandatory evacuation areas. Mandatory evacuation areas are pretty much cleared, using any bus the city/county had available. Voluntarily evacuation areas are fairly deserted.

NOLA had the same kind of snarly traffic jam. Nobody much cared, in retrospect, because the horrible conditions after Katrina are much more salient.

The thing is, while the plans have worked reasonably well, it's not going to be as bad a storm: there'll be flooding in Houston, but it won't stick around. By Sat. night, people will be able to return to their homes (I expect Houston to fill up Monday).

One big complaint is the lack of gasoline in Houston. The news media are trying to say that there's none to be had, where's FEMA, where's the state? There's no gasoline to be bought in my neighborhood, and there wasn't yesterday. Then again, the gas station's are closed.

[Nikki Stone 1]

3. New Orleans is evacuating now. St Tammany is under mandatory evac

My friend in Lacombe has to evacuate again. She had just gotten home and found the house livable. They had just gone to Mandeville, bought food at the Winn Dixie and filled the fridge again. Now they are back on the road.