http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5996000.htmlThursday, Sept 11 - (Galveston mayor's spokeswoman) Naschke said efforts were going smoothly to bus about 2,800 residents who lack their own transportation to shelters in Austin. Galveston officials said all shelters on the island would be closed and that 75 buses would move about 3,600 residents who need transportation.
And this, also from Thursday
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/28252789.htmlPerry said this morning there were 2,650 government officials on a conference call to prepare for the storm. He said he has activated 7,500 members of the National Guard.
Perry said there also are 1,300 buses and 100 ambulances helping evacuation those who cannot do it themselves. Additionally, six C-130 aircraft from the Texas State Guard are participating in the evacuation of Galveston.
Or this, again from Thursday
http://arklatexhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=36621Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas is now asking residents who have not evacuated the island to go ahead and leave before Ike arrives.
Thomas said the mandatory evacuation order is effective as of 9:30 a.m. today. This is in addition to the mandatory evacuation already underway for the west end of the island which went into effect earlier this morning.
Galveston evacuation routes include I-45 northbound, FM 3005 south to San Luis Pass or the Bolivar Ferry to Highway 87.
The ferry itself will close at 11 p.m. tonight. Mayor Thomas says there will be no shelters on the island.
Those with special needs will be evacuated on buses leaving from a facility at 47th Street and Broadway starting at 2 p.m. this afternoon.
Anyone who feels they need help evacuating from Galveston can go to any bus stop and they will be taken to the 47th Street facility.
There were many ways for people to evacuate if they didn't have their own transportation. Did a few people fall through the cracks? Probably so. However, those people are the exception rather than the rule. More likely, this is why they didn't evacuate:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZHORCLIPjSS7Rx7DN5XGugStOmAGalveston neighbors Celia Padnos and Leslie LeGrande said they were jaded after evacuating before Hurricane Rita in 2005 veered away at the last minute. They plan to say at home if Ike is anything less than a category three hurricane.
"I hate driving and I ended up driving for 14 hours to Austin (normally a 3.5 hour drive) with one cat, all my family photos, food and two young children in the car," said Padnos, recalling Hurricane Rita.
"Unless it's really bad, we don't want to go anywhere," said LeGrande.
If forced to evacuate, LeGrande hopes that hotels will be available -- during the Rita scare, many hotels were already filled with people who had fled Hurricane Katrina, she said.