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Author	Topic: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
Darth-Stryphe Title: Saga Manager Registered: Apr '01	Date Posted: 3/22/06 10:43am Subject: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation - Date Edited: 3/22/06 7:50pm (2 edits total) Edited By: Darth-Stryphe
	Today marks the six-month anniversary of the Desperate Road. I wasn't sure if I was going to post this on the JC. I'd originally mentioned this to the mods last year. Many said they'd like to read it. But this is a deeply personal story, and so I thought better of it -- until I saw the Rita report just a few weeks ago. I sadly realized than that those responsible for it had forgotten so quickly the lessons of that day, and that because of this there would be another Desperate Road. What is the Desperate Road? The meaning of the term is one of the first things I explain in my accounting, so I will save that for later. I should first explain what it is I am posting. As some of you know, I live in Houston. Although not storm afflicted like New Orleans, Houston was forever changed by the events of last September. Events that started at the end of August and went on for the next month changed millions of people’s lives, including mine. As September progressed, many of my friends and family who lived elsewhere wrote me wanting to know what was happening from someone who was there saying/hearing everything first hand, and so I took to writing a series of memorizes, which ended up turning into a book. I call it “the Tale of Two Hurricanes”. Ironically, that was not its original name. I was going to call it “The Shores of Katrina” until one day I got up to go to work and got the news about Rita. That was the day I started writing this book. It’s not meant for publication, I should clarify, and thus the writing style and format are unrefined. I am writing it solely to share with family and friends. In section five of the book I also recount my evacuation experience. There is a lot of misunderstanding about the evacuation – why it was so huge, whose fault was it for being such a mess, who was or wasn’t harmed by the evacuation. Hopefully, my own accounting will address of all these things, although some of it not until the end. And with that, let us begin. A Tale of Two Hurricanes Part Five: The Desperate Road Dedication: To every man, woman and child who set out on the Desperate Road one September day, but never found their way home again. Chapter Twenty-Four: True Meaning of the Desperate Road Rush hour in Houston is a mess. It is the fourth largest city in America, and its size is reflected in its rush hour traffic. I-10 in Houston is legendary for its extremely long back-ups. Getting home or to work from I-10, I-45 or parts of 59 can take over an hour. Road construction is everywhere. There isn't a major highway in Houston that doesn't have something being worked on, thus adding the backups (half the time the end product doesn't help the flow problems at all). This is on your average workday, and just for the immediate city of Houston and the closest communities. There are over four million people in Houston alone, counting surrounding areas such as Galveston, Texas City, Bay Town, Katy, Sugar Land, The Woodlands, Pasadena, and so on. So what happens when a city this size finds itself in pending peril? Is it possible to evacuate an entire community of this size and save it from impending disaster? Is it? We tried, goodness knows we tried, and not even the whole community, less than half of it. Almost two million people got on that desperate road trying to flee not the present, Rita, but the past, Katrina. Those of us who did paid a price for doing so. For some the price was small but for others it was large. For over a hundred people, the cost was their life Of all I experienced and saw in September, this is the one everyone has wanted to hear the most. At least, so you think. The truth is, you don't. Not really. It is not something anyone would want to hear who has any connection to the story, not the way it should be told. It's an ugly story, and not as much a journey of miles as it is a journey of the mind. I could recount a few interesting facts and experiences about the day, but then you wouldn't know or understand what the Desperate Road really was. Nor would it be fair for me to do so. For every person who set out to evacuate but didn't make it out alive, I owe them that much at the very least. Because the number of dead was barely over one hundred, the evacuation of Houston was not considered a great tragedy that year. It is true, there were far greater ones within the Tale of Two Hurricanes, of which Katrina was one. But the assumption is, then, that it was not a tragedy at all. And as such, the hundred plus who died have no one to tell their story. Even I cannot tell you their story in any detail, as the details have been lost in time. But I can tell you of the journey itself and of that terrible road. PHASE I: THE FLIGHT Chapter Twenty-Five: Pre-flight check Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005 7:20 AM I woke up to my alarm and a bit of sunlight that was already pouring into my room. My plan was almost set, but there was some small doubt in my mind, and much information I still needed. Hurricanes are unpredictable, and I knew there was even still a chance of it turning away... but then again, even if it turned away this morning, with landfall over a day and a half away, it still had time to turn back again. So I had breakfast, a light one, as is my habit, and listened to the radio. The radio reports were still grim, and that's being kind. The hurricane was teetering between a category four and a category five. This was slightly better than the night before when it had been a full-blown cat. 5, but by no means was it "wonderful news". Being a borderline cat. 4 (pushing towards 5), it could still lay waste to half of Houston, and damage all of it in some form or fashion if it hit us head on. The news reports also held that it was still heading straight for us. "Be ready for anything," one radio station was warning. "If you live in an area that has never flooded, don't expect that to matter this time. If you've never sustained wind damager before in your neighborhood, don't expect you'll avoid it this time." That was the final deal breaker. Within an hour or so, I told myself, I will be on my way to San Antonio and wade this out with my uncle and aunt. I knew I wouldn't be able to go to work that day anyway. The trip to church the night before told me that there were no roads that led to my office that I could travel. You see, I take I-45 to work each day, which is the main interstate between Dallas and Houston. My office is off of I-45, with no other way to reach it. On an average day, that means I go against traffic and have an easy drive. Today, however, ALL I-45 traffic was northbound, and in far greater quantities than I had ever seen. 8:15 AM After breakfasting and the usual morning routine, I called in to work. The office manager transferred me to my boss. He seemed -- hmmm, not sure, exasperated? I told him that I would not be able to make it into work. "Every road northbound is impossible to pass without spending a long time on the road," I told him, "and with contra-flow lanes opening up, I wouldn't be able to come home, so, for me, all roads lead west now, and away from the hurricane." He seemed a little unhappy at the news, but admitted that a lot of people had already called in, and that he wanted to wrap up his work quickly so that he could leave, too. I didn't know if that meant leave town, or just the office, and I didn't think to ask. I spent the next hour doing last minute securing of my apartment, packing, and getting my rabbit, Becky, ready for the journey. I had some reservations about taking Becky. It would be a long journey, there would be no telling how long I would be gone or when I would be able to get back into town, and the entire time I was away she would have to stay in a tiny carrying cage. But for obvious reasons, I couldn’t leave her behind. So I packed her in her traveling cage, put her food in my car, and attached a full water bottle to the outside of her cage so that she could stay hydrated on the journey. She was most unhappy about it all. Being a skittish animal, she's very apprehensive about traveling, but there was simply nothing for it. As I prepared to leave, I kept listening to news reports. Outbound traffic was a mess, they said. It was hardly moving. In town traffic was practically non-existent, though. Gas was already becoming a rare commodity. Still, the encouraging news was that the contra flow lanes were about to open up, and that should fix everything. The concept of contra-flow lanes still baffled me. I had no idea how that was suppose to work logistically. After all, southbound lanes are physically built to handle traffic in that given direction, after all. But the city had a plan, it sounded encouraging, and all that was left was to trust them, and God, and hope that it was going to work out. 9:15 AM Everything was set, I was ready to go, save for two final tasks. First, I called my uncle to let him know I was leaving. My uncle was pleased to hear it. "San Antonio is normally 3 hours away from Houston," he said, "but expect that you will not go faster than 30 miles-an-hour, so you will probably make it by about 6 PM." Given what I had heard about the road conditions, part of me found that doubtful, as in, it would take longer. However, they were opening the contra-flow lanes, and surely a 200 mile drive couldn't take more than eight hours, one way or the other, could it? Maybe even less? I concluded our conversation by telling him I would do my best, and would see him that evening. 9:20 AM I packed the car and was ready to go. Two things occurred to me, though. First, I wouldn’t be able to stop for a while, I imagined. With highways being turned into evacuation routes, easy on-and-offs around Houston and surrounding areas would be few and far between. As such, it would be later in the afternoon before I could stop and get anything to eat or drink. So I grabbed a light lunch, just some fruit (when busy or stressed, that’s usually all the lunch I want) and two bottled drinks (a 16 oz. and a 12 oz.). All I had bottled in my frig was Dr. Pepper, and I thought it best to take water as well, so I poured out one DP and filled it with water, the second drink I took as a DP. That would hold me for a while, I guessed, until mid afternoon, by which time I should be far enough out to find a place to stop. The second thing I was concerned about was how to get to I-10. I-10 is the main west/east bound road heading towards San Antonio. Normally I would take I-45 south to I-10. My concern was that I-45 south would be closed and converted to northbound contra-flow lanes. Since I-45 is within eyeshot of my apartment, I decided to check. I rushed out the front door and ran around to the side streets. It was eerily quite out. It was like I had Houston to myself. I couldn’t see the northbound road from the adjoining side street, but I could see the south bound lane from where I stood, and it was open and clear. That made things easy. Now I was ready. I through my bags into my car and set out onto the road. Let me state something of importance for putting the rest of the events in context. When I left that morning, I began as I should have in regards to state of mind. I knew it was going to be a hard road, I knew the future was uncertain, but I was hopefully, and in a strange sort of way, almost looking forward to it. The idea of a three-hour drive turning into anything more than three hours was unappealing, granted, but I knew it would be a memorable trip and that was what I was looking forward to. I had a sense of peace and patience about me. I did not require that the roads be moving at highway speed, all I wanted was some forward momentum that led away from Rita. Despite the stress of the last several weeks and especially several days, I had a pretty good attitude about it all. Even if my place was destroyed and I had no place to come back to, well, it would be a new beginning. That was the frame of mind in which the journey began. (More to come, this will take me a long time to copy/paste everything as the whole story is several dozen pages) -----signature----- Lord of the Script, it's FABULOUSO: http://boards.theforce.net/Star_Wars_Community/b10012/8237772/p1 The Desperate Road: http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/23481819/p1 I love you, lonely Dewback on the ridge Az Isten áldjon meg!
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Boga-the-Magnificent Registered: Jun '05	Date Posted: 3/22/06 11:43am Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	Thank you for sharing this Stryphe. -----signature----- Read my silly fan fic! http://boards.theforce.net/Message.aspx?topic=22747461&brd=10476& AHBY! Play the Saga Transport Tourney Game! http://boards.theforce.net/fanforce_community/b10022/24596597/p1/?29
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yodaboy Registered: Feb '01	Date Posted: 3/22/06 3:20pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	I look forward to the future segements as I live in Houston, but fortunatley I was away at college while this happened. -----signature----- http://www.shinycouncil.com/ Grace > Karma
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Darth-Stryphe Title: Saga Manager Registered: Apr '01	Date Posted: 3/22/06 3:53pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	Hi Yodaboy, I remember you from the HFF board. Consider yourself fortunate. Did your family evacuate? -----signature----- Lord of the Script, it's FABULOUSO: http://boards.theforce.net/Star_Wars_Community/b10012/8237772/p1 The Desperate Road: http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/23481819/p1 I love you, lonely Dewback on the ridge Az Isten áldjon meg!
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Healer_Leona Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 3/22/06 4:36pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	I find myself already engrossed and still hesitant about reading this. Truth be told, while I read for the love of being touched and moved and know whatever happens here is not something I will be able to push aside as a wonderful work of fiction. FOr you to have gone through this and be willing and able to share, I thank you. -----signature----- Still crazy after all these years.
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DarthTunick Title: Host: The JCC Weekly Poll Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 3/22/06 6:49pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation - Date Edited: 3/22/06 6:49pm (1 edits total) Edited By: DarthTunick
	I'm looking forward to reading more about your experiences Stryphe. I remember watching all of the TV coverage on Katrina/Rita last fall & being heartbroken/sickened by alot I saw. Both of these disasters reminded me of what I went through during the 1994 Northridge earthquake here in L.A. & of the constant danger that California faces from earthquakes & other forces (mudslides & wildfires). -----signature----- September 11th, 2001 -Never forget Viva La Ciudad de Los Angeles! RIP, Cody "Snowball" Reeves, 1978-2008. Let me explain something to you about the Dude...... 2008 NLCS: Dodgers vs. Phillies, Philly leads 2-0
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Darth-Stryphe Title: Saga Manager Registered: Apr '01	Date Posted: 3/22/06 7:44pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	Thanks for the words, everyone. Yeah, Tunick, I remember hearing about the quakes, although I thought it was 92. Maybe I am thinking of a different quake. Much of the word lives under some sort of threat of natural disaster. It isn't easy, but it is a fact of life. Many of the events that month were heart-breaking and disturbing. The worst of it was the people who ended up in the Super Dome in New Orleans. I spent time with evacuees that month. On September 2, I spoke with one man who had just arrived in Houston from the Super Dome. He had a horrific tale to tell. It's not one I recount very often, and it is not TOS friendly. -----signature----- Lord of the Script, it's FABULOUSO: http://boards.theforce.net/Star_Wars_Community/b10012/8237772/p1 The Desperate Road: http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/23481819/p1 I love you, lonely Dewback on the ridge Az Isten áldjon meg!
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Darth-Stryphe Title: Saga Manager Registered: Apr '01	Date Posted: 3/22/06 7:45pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	Chapter Twenty-Six: "And so it begins..." 9:25 AM The highway southbound was empty, as I had noticed a few minutes earlier. It was an odd change of events. Southbound into Houston from the north suburbs is usually crowded in the morning. There was hardly a car on the road going south. I was relief not by this, but to see that the contra-flow lane had not been opened yet and made it possible for me to get quickly over to I-10. Northbound was a different matter, and not an encouraging sight. It was wall-to-wall cars, and barely moving. I-45 at that point in Houston is five lanes, mind you. This is wide and open road, and it was going nowhere fast. I felt it best to get off of I-45 as quickly as possible, since I didn't know what there plans were for the contra-flow lanes, at that time. There is a large outer loop in Houston, which covers all Houston, most of annexed Houston and a few of the suburbs, called Beltway 8. It is the best way to get around the outskirts of town if you want to travel any significant distance. Since it is a tollroad and I am cheap, I generally avoid it, but I didn't think I could afford to play cheap that day, so when I came upon the Beltway I immediately got on and headed west. The radio proved to be an invaluable ally throughout the journey. I turned it on as soon as I was on the highway to try and figure out what was going on. Going into Houston as a means of getting to I-10 wouldn't have been the best idea, I quickly learned. Certain parts of certain highways were closed and forcing people (if they went those directions) onto the nearest evacuation route. Plus, if I-10 was backed up, I would miss a few miles of backup by taking the loop around. From what the radio said, I-10 was not a pretty sight. I thought about what I had seen on I-45. Comparing reports from the radio, they indicated I-45 was the worst, so I wasn't too discouraged by going to I-10. However, I had heard enough reports from the night before and on the radio now to know all roads outside of Houston would prove difficult. Still, if I could just get my tires on the outbound road, all I would need to do is ask the Lord for a little more patience than I normally have, and all would be fine. As it turned out, taking the toll road was a very good idea. Aside from looping around quickly, as I had hoped, it was also free that day. As I got to the toll booth, the one that makes change (since I never bring any) I noticed that it was empty and the passage light was green. About that time the radio verified that the booths were closed and that you could just go on through, so I did. The toll road, which is always usually crowded on a weekday morning, was also empty for the most part. All the better for me, but creepy at the same time. Reports were already coming in on the radio about gas shortages. Sure, there had been shortages the night before, but not too many, just a few stations here and there. Now, though, the big chatter on the radio, and would be for much of the day, was where to find gas. The radio stations I listened to the most were encouraging people to call in and say where they knew of stations with gasoline. One person would call in and give the address of an obscure station somewhere in the metroplex, only to have someone else call in five minutes later and say it was sold out. I was very grateful that I had filled up the car the night before. It sounded as if gas was going to be very hard to come-by. As bad as it sounded at that moment, little did I know, it was going to get worse. Much, much worse. 9:40 AM It was about this time that I made one of my first mistakes. I had actually already made several and didn't even realize it. But this one was obvious. Fortunately, it also was easily corrected. I couldn't remember how far around on the Beltway it was before I reached I-10 and being distracted I lost my sense of distance-traveled. Now, I was focused and I knew (correctly) there was no way I would miss it. What I forgot, though, was it wasn't the first major highway interchange. After being on the road about fifteen minutes, I came upon a wall of traffic. The wall of traffic was only in the far right lane. It was not causing any backup on the main body of the highway, just if you wanted to go where the right lane went. Now, when I mean wall of traffic, I do accurately describe what it was. It was a long stretch of cars, moving very slowly, for which there was no getting around (provided you needed in the right lane's end destination). I thought this was the exit for I-10. It was daunting, but if that was the way to I-10, then there was nothing for it. Besides, a one lane exit ramp for a major highway in heavily use, a backup is to be expected, so I got in line. 10:05 AM Eh, OK, so this isn't the lane for I-10 I realized after having moved about a quarter mile in almost thirty minutes. In that amount of time I had moved close enough to see the sign for 290, the road to Austin. Like I said, a mistake easily rectified, and although the time lost was somewhat annoying, it was not consequential, so I didn't let it bother me. What did bother me was this thought: 290 heads to Austin. By all account, fewer people were headed to Austin than either Dallas or San Antonio. (It was, in fact, as I would learn later, probably the #3 destination). This meant as bad as this back up had been I could not expect I-10 to be any better, and reasonable to expect worse. Before I even got within eye-shot of I-10, the radios confirmed this to be so. As I continued down Beltway 8, reports came in about Houston's plans for the contra-flow lane. I-45 had turned into a logistical nightmare on the far north side of down. Please understand, this came as no surprise to me nor should it have to anyone who travels that road with any regularity. The idea you could evacuate Houston through I-45 at this point was naive at best. On a regular day the outbound traffic badly bottle necks on the north edge of the Woodlands (the north most Houston suburb). Coming out of Houston at the Woodlands, I-45 north goes from five to two lanes within the spans of a mere few hundred feet. It's always crowded getting out of town, and stays that way anywhere from five to fifteen miles, causing ten minute drives to turn into hour long drives at times. Again, this is with normal outbound traffic. Because of this the evacuation traffic had become unmanageable and was causing backups that extended almost to Galveston (over 70 miles south of the Woodlands), the city was increasing its efforts to get the contra-flow lane in place. The reports said that frustrated drivers were already creating their own contra-flow lanes by jumping onto the southbound lanes and driving north. The contra-flow were suppose to go up Wednesday night and start down around the Beltway. But neither turned out to be the case. The contra-flow lane opened some time between 9 and 10 AM that morning around the south edge of the Woodlands, about five miles south from where the normal bottle-neck occurs. It was helping a great deal, the early reports said, that is, it was helping if you were in the Woodlands. The backup was so heavy that no relief could be felt until you got to the opening of the contra-flow lanes. One of the news reports, an IT news talk-host guy, called into his own station. He was heading to Dallas for a family occasion, ironically, and not for evacuation purposes. He said he was almost to the contra-flow opening and had been on the road for several hours already. Reports on the radio also said that I-10 was schedule to have a contra-flow put in place very soon, as well. This was the first I heard about I-10, so it caught my ear. Supposedly I-10's contra-flow was originally scheduled to be in place hours ago, but like I-45 there were delays and it still had not opened. Rumors and reports floated in as to why it had not opened and when it would. Best guess was it would be ready by noon. All of this was naturally painting me a pretty unpleasant picture of the journey ahead. Fortunately, so I though, all the trauma and drama seemed to be on I-45. If I-10 was in need of a contra-flow lane, it, too, must be bad, I reasoned, but surely not as bad as I-45, and with its contra-flow lanes scheduled to open in the next couple of hours, it would be OK, right? Maybe not. No, definitely not I realized as I approached the I-10 interchange. I-10 was backed up onto Beltway 8 for about 1/3 to ½ a mile, and there was no movement, none. Cars lined up waiting for a turn to get onto the highway that might as well been closed given the lack of traffic flow. In fact, people were out of their cars, standing, sitting, wandering around and talking to people in other cars - hundreds of cars wanting to get onto I-10 that were all, in effect, parked. -----signature----- Lord of the Script, it's FABULOUSO: http://boards.theforce.net/Star_Wars_Community/b10012/8237772/p1 The Desperate Road: http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/23481819/p1 I love you, lonely Dewback on the ridge Az Isten áldjon meg!
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DarthTunick Title: Host: The JCC Weekly Poll Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 3/22/06 8:12pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	Darth-Stryphe posted: Thanks for the words, everyone. Yeah, Tunick, I remember hearing about the quakes, although I thought it was 92. Maybe I am thinking of a different quake. Much of the word lives under some sort of threat of natural disaster. It isn't easy, but it is a fact of life. Well you got the year right for another disaster: The Rodney King Riots. The early-to mid 1990's were a trying time here in Los Angeles. 1992 came the riots, then in 1993 we had horrible wildfires/mudslides, the the quake happend in 1994 & to lesser extent the O.J. Simpson trial, which lasted from 1994-1995. Wow, just reading about that traffic backup gives me a bad feeling Stryphe, since I live in the worst congested city in the nation, although I haven't been on any of the freeways here for evacuation purposes. -----signature----- September 11th, 2001 -Never forget Viva La Ciudad de Los Angeles! RIP, Cody "Snowball" Reeves, 1978-2008. Let me explain something to you about the Dude...... 2008 NLCS: Dodgers vs. Phillies, Philly leads 2-0
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Darth-Stryphe Title: Saga Manager Registered: Apr '01	Date Posted: 3/23/06 10:34am Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	Oh, it gets worse. Much, much worse. I guess LA wouldn't have to worry about evacs, would it? Quakes comes without enough notice. -----signature----- Lord of the Script, it's FABULOUSO: http://boards.theforce.net/Star_Wars_Community/b10012/8237772/p1 The Desperate Road: http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/23481819/p1 I love you, lonely Dewback on the ridge Az Isten áldjon meg!
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Kyp Registered: Feb '03	Date Posted: 3/23/06 10:48am Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	My interest is piqued. -----signature----- 2000 mockingbirds = 2 kilamockingbirds
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malkieD2 Title: EuroMod™-JCC - FFUK-RSA Emeritus Registered: Jun '02	Date Posted: 3/23/06 10:54am Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	have you considered publishing this ? It's good reading. -----signature----- HBOF There are only 10 types of people in this world; those who understand binary jokes, and those who don't. If you don't already know, you'll never understand. If you already know, no explanation is needed - KW
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GIMER Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 3/23/06 11:27am Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	thank you for writing this. -----signature----- "Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein (Room #320) My Store: http://cgenes.atspace.com Sometimes smarter than a Lemming! Discounted Day-Old Manager of Pancakes and Waffles
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DarthTunick Title: Host: The JCC Weekly Poll Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 3/23/06 1:37pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation - Date Edited: 3/23/06 1:41pm (1 edits total) Edited By: DarthTunick
	Darth-Stryphe posted: Oh, it gets worse. Much, much worse. I guess LA wouldn't have to worry about evacs, would it? Quakes comes without enough notice. Yikes. Yeah, it one of the cons of living out here; at any moment, a huge quake can occur, at least you guys near the Gulf (who have to worry about hurricanes) & those who have to worry about tornados/ huge snowstorms have warning as to when those things will happen. Obviously then we can't have evacs before a quake, but if one is big/destructive enough, there would have to be evacs out of the area & that can even be more hellish than what you went through, because the quake would have destroyed/seriously damaged many of the freeways (the lifeblood of tranportation here in Southern California)/roads in which myself & my fellow SoCal'ers would have to use. All of this of course isn't accounting for aftershocks, in which there are 100's, possibly 1000's, after a huge quake. -----signature----- September 11th, 2001 -Never forget Viva La Ciudad de Los Angeles! RIP, Cody "Snowball" Reeves, 1978-2008. Let me explain something to you about the Dude...... 2008 NLCS: Dodgers vs. Phillies, Philly leads 2-0
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Darth-Stryphe Title: Saga Manager Registered: Apr '01	Date Posted: 3/23/06 4:15pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation - Date Edited: 3/23/06 4:16pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Darth-Stryphe
	Yeah, I actually don't think you could evacuate LA under those circumstance, to be honest. We couldn't evacuate Houston under better circumstances than that. have you considered publishing this ? It's good reading. Thanks. Well, the entire book was geared to people that I sent my last set of memorizes to, so it would need a lot of re-writing to be for the general public, plus, how would I re-write to avoid anything that might seem like explotation? I actually look forward to getting back to writing fiction. This has been emotional and mentally draining. -----signature----- Lord of the Script, it's FABULOUSO: http://boards.theforce.net/Star_Wars_Community/b10012/8237772/p1 The Desperate Road: http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/23481819/p1 I love you, lonely Dewback on the ridge Az Isten áldjon meg!
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Darth-Stryphe Title: Saga Manager Registered: Apr '01	Date Posted: 3/23/06 4:17pm Subject: RE: The Desperate Road, a first hand account of the Houston/Rita evacuation
	10:15 AM There didn't really seem any point in getting in this line. Maybe in a while the contra-flow lane would open and it would start moving again, but when would they be? Even noon was just speculation by the authorities at this point, and that was assuming it would even have a measurable effect. No, there had to be another way, and I was determined to find it. I continued down Beltway 8 passed I-10. The first idea I had was to find a major east/west bound side road and take it for a few miles then cut back over to I-10 in hopes that the backup wouldn't be as bad a few miles out. I went ahead and exited the toll road and took the service road for a while, monitoring the intersecting streets and watching for a name that I recognized. I passed several gas stations in the process. I hadn't spent enough miles or time on the road to notice any measurable effect on my gas gage, but as rapidly as gasoline was depleting around town, it seemed like a good idea to go ahead and top off again if I saw a place that had gas. The radio stations continued to make announcements about which stations did or did not have fuel. More and more reports were coming in about stations with long lines and no gas. All the stations that I passed echoed this. One station looked like they might have had fuel. I stopped along side, and it looked like people were actually fueling up, but I didn't see anyone drive off, so I wondered if they were just hoping against hope only to find the pumps empty. The longer I waited, the more it seemed to be the case. I decided it was a waste of time and effort to stop at any of them. Like I said, I didn't need gas at the time, and my mileage should be as such as would allow me to get to San Antonio on about 2/3rd or 3/4th of a tank, so I pressed on. As I was on the side roads sitting at a light, I saw a homeless man on the corner asking for money. I waved him over to my car and give him a dollar, then told him "you'd really should be finding shelter for the storm, you know." This man was perhaps the most chipper person I ran into that day. He smiled and assured me that he had a place to go to then return to his post awaiting more cars to come by. It was an odd sight. In all the sound of fury of the flight, a lone man stood without a care in the world, awaiting patiently the generosity of others and unafraid of the future. I became doubtful of my plan to find a side road over to I-10, and the further south I went along the access road looking for one, the more difficult this theory would be to put into practice. Another idea occurred to me. In just a couple of miles I would come upon highway 59. Highway 59 is another major east/west bound highway, only unlike I-10 it has a heavy curve to the north/south as well (northeast to southwest). In fact, it runs parallel to the Gulf Coast. Where as I-45 connects to Dallas, I-10 to San Antonio and 290 to Austin, 59 also connects to a major city of equal distance away -- Corpus Christi. Now evacuating to Corpus Christi made little sense. Even though it was many miles removed from Houston, it is a town that sits on the Gulf Coast, and if Rita were to take a sudden turn, Corpus Christi would be laid to waste. While there were no predications of this happening in the forecast, pretty much everyone in the Houston area understood this, so there would be no evacuation traffic to Corpus. But how then does this help me, you might ask. I knew evacuating to Corpus was a bad idea, and my family was awaiting me in San Antonio. However, back in 2003 I had made a journey to a town near Corpus, and I remembered that the main highway running out of Corpus was about a three hour due south of San Antonio. Seems nuts, I know, going three hours worth of driving out of the way in order to get to my destination, but consider this - if the evac traffic goes nowhere and takes many, many hours (say a full day), but I can make Corpus in six hours (double normal time, I'm assuming some evac traffic would go to Corpus, regardless) and then three hours to San Antonio from Corpus, the whole trip could be done in nine hours. I could be there by dinner time. If I took an evacuation route, there was no telling when I would get there. So, I headed for Highway 59. -----signature----- Lord of the Script, it's FABULOUSO: http://boards.theforce.net/Star_Wars_Community/b10012/8237772/p1 The Desperate Road: http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/23481819/p1 I love you, lonely Dewback on the ridge Az Isten áldjon meg!
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