About evacuating from the Houston area---please read this:

[Bouncy Ball]

I don't have permission to post it (yet), but I got word from a friend and she told me her tale of getting out of Houston.

It's far worse than it seems. Her story gave me chills.

The one thing I do want to convey is that these stories of tankers with gas helping people all over the place....she saw NONE of that. It was infuriating her to hear on the radio that newscasters were saying this evacuation was going well, people were being helped, etc.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Like I said, I don't have permission to post her story, but I am hoping to be able to so that people can have a first-hand account of how awful it is trying to get out. When people get hit by this thing and they are in their cars...stuck...stranded....

Where are all the nasty reich wingers who claim it's so easy to evacuate????

[Lindsay]

1. CNN was reporting earlier that there were two

tanker trucks with gasoline - and they had the wrong nozzles for putting gas into cars.

With a 100-or-so mile traffic jam and two trucks, I'm not surprised to hear somebody didn't see one.

[cdsilv]

2. My ex and youngest daughter left Wednesday ......

....and they live in north Houston. In a 3rd floor apt. They went to
my eldest daughter's apt in San Marcos.

Of course we've all lived on the Gulf coast for awhile, and know what to do when the 'canes head our way.

[Bouncy Ball]

3. Um, my friend left Wednesday TOO.

And JUST arrived in near Austin at 7:52 am THIS MORNING.

She has lived on the Gulf Coast for a long time, too, and also knows what to do.

That's what I'm trying to say...the fact that a drive from Houston to Austin took 36 hours is just insane.

[etherealtruth]

5. CNN has been reporting this horror ...

... much of the morning. It appears the evacuations are poorly planned and in many ways put people in jeopardy. It does not appear that the authorities had a good handle on monitoring contra flow ... At this point my most fervent desire is that the people that have sat there find safety from the storm and find a little comfort (somewhere).

[tnlefty]

14. Now, now Gov. Goodhair said that none of that stuff that happened

in LA would happen in TX, and that he had everything under control and things would be perfect and just peachy. Your friend is obviously mistaken as this seems to contradict what Gov. Goodhair said on national TV. :sarcasm:

[tlmorris]

4. I-10 West bound

I just heard from my mom. She evacuated from Houston to San Antonio this morning. She said I-10 wasn't too bad, especially with the contraflow lanes open. Traffic in San Antonio was pretty bad, but still moving. She said there were DPS troopers and other police officers at many rest areas along the way giving out 5 gals of gas per car.

[Bouncy Ball]

7. Huh, oh really?

Well, did they just show up or something?

[Emit]

13. She left Houston this am and arrived in San Antonio today?

So, traffic on I-10 is okay now? How many hours did it take her? Things have cleared out?

Anderson Cooper had a guy on last night who had been driving from Houston to Austin for like 12 hours, and they were saying if you haven't left Galveston yet, don't bother because the traffic is so bad.

I have a brother in Sugarland area, and he was having a hard time deciding what to do about getting into all the traffic vs. staying and waiting it out. We're still waiting to find out where he is.

[Bouncy Ball]

16. Honestly, I don't believe his or her story.

There is no way his or her mom left Houston this morning on I-10 and got to San Antonio in a few hours. Impossible. That's why I said "oh really?"

:eyes:

[Emit]

20. Yeah, that's why I asked, too. I just spoke with my brother this am

He was successful in leaving SW Houston, but has chosen to travel south to Edinburg and was at Victoria when I reached him. Traffic was better that direction.

On the otherhand, his ex-wife got on I-10 yesterday to pick up her disabled mother and traveled 16 miles in 16 hours. She turned around and went home, running out of gas in the mean time.

Another friend has succesfully made it today to San Antonio, after driving numerous hours yesterday (she had left at 6am).

I haven't looked at the news today as far as the traffic, but as I understand, it's still pretty bad on I-10 and those other freeways out of Houston.

[daninthemoon]

6. No worries. * is headed for San Antonio to take personal charge.

Gonna take some pix and get back on the jet.

[Igel]

8. When and where?

The gas tankers were out late last night, and they were only going to be on official evacuation routes.

[Bouncy Ball]

9. She was ON an official evac route.

That's what she's saying, the gas tankers were NOT out there. She was on I-10.

[Sweet Freedom]

10. The local news is reporting this

Last night, all three stations were reporting that the tankers hadn't shown up. Today, one station said that 200 motorists had been rescued but that they estimated 5,000 total were stranded.

One mayor (can't remember which city) complained that Houston released evacuees too early onto the main lanes and that caused the jams.

Anyway, since last night, the advice has been, if you haven't yet left, don't.

[Bouncy Ball]

12. THANK YOU.

This stuff about gas tankers is a bunch of hooey. Even if they are there, they aren't getting very many cars gassed up, that's for sure. From what she said, it was an absolute nightmare. And please remember everyone how very hot it still is here. It might be fall for a lot of people, but we're often wearing shorts at Thanksgiving.

I just wish I could post my friend's story. I really want to wait for her permission, though, and she took the baby to a doctor. The baby has croup and has needed to see a doctor badly.

I'm also semi-hoping she and her family are finally getting some sleep.

[DS1]

11. People getting fucked while the media glosses it over?

Tell me why Houston isn't Iraq, minus the car-bombings?

[snooper2]

15. People taking backroads made it to Oklahoma city in 10 hours

(This was yesterday)
Why everyone would jump on 35 North at the same time and expect to go anywhere baffles me......

[Bouncy Ball]

17. Do you mean 45 north?

Or do you even know the roads in Texas?

Do you know that Houston is the fourth largest city in the nation, and that's not even including the burbs?

[Mutley]

18. Friends of mine had the same problem...

but they turned around and went back home because their gas was low and they didn't want to be stranded on the road. This is such an f-ing mess!

[Dora]

19. Many tried to leave Houston at the same time.

After hearing the horror forecasts, I think many many people tried to leave on Wednesday night. Another post recognized that many households evacuated all of their vehicles, not just one.

We live in Austin, and my husband had a gig in Houston on Wednesday night. After they played the first set, the restaurant shut down early and sent them home. He called me at 9:30 to say they were coming back, and he thought it would take 7-8 hours. It actually took 22. I-10 was bottlenecking horribly at and after the 610 loop. All the burb traffic entering I-10 was making it worse - drivers were getting aggressive and there were a lot of dented and scraped fenders from vehicles forcing their way into a lane. Yesterday morning, 12 hours after they left the restaurant, they still hadn't yet made it to Katy. Once they made it through the bottleneck (Katy), traffic loosened a little bit. Once TXDOT opened the contraflow lanes, traffic loosened a lot.

Then they stopped in Columbus because they were running on fumes. They waited five hours for fuel to arrive, then decided to drive a mile down the highway where they encountered a TXDOT fuel truck.

He got home last night, a 22 hour drive.