Houston chronicle Hurricane blog

[Cassandra]

http://blogs.chron.com/rita/

Scary traffic stories so far. Sitting in traffic for many hours, little or no gas or bottled water left, poor people without buses. Sounds depressingly familiar.

[halobeam]

1. You betcha...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4847167&mesg_id=4847167

[Booster]

2. My heart goes out to these people, but I live in CA and most of us

here know we're going to have a significant earthquake in the near future and they come with absolutely no warning. Most of my friends and I have supplies stored up for this, so I can't imagine why the people in the hurricane area didn't stock up on the very essentials to sustain life for at least a week. Rita certainly gave them enough time. I talked to my family who are in the direct path of Rita and they are whining that they have no money, no gas, etc and I think they are going to try and ride it out, even though I have talked til I'm blue in the face, yelled, screamed "GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE". My aunt told me they would be alright because they have a basement - a basement; just what you need in a hurricane. Between four of them, they have $100 in cash and live in a tiny town so it's impossible to get any money to them. They're all Republican so let's see if my Republican Christian family loots anything. My money is on they do.

[Cassandra]

4. Basement?

How is their snorkling ability?
So much for the "personal responsibility" party.

[jwirr]

7. Basements protect you from wind but they are traps when

it floods. When I was small we had a tornado hit our home. We all talked about going into the basement but did not have time to reach the outside door. When the storm ended the basement door had a large tree down over it and the basement was full of water. We would have died in that basement.

[Igel]

3. People without buses, to provide them with buses.

Even from your own link:

"Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority is shutting down regular bus service today at 2 p.m., seven hours earlier than planned. The city wants to use the buses for evacuations. Trains will operate until 9 p.m."

[Cassandra]

5. There are still people stuck at the bus stations

with no seats available.

[Igel]

8. No doubt.

But the buses have been taken to evacuate those in evacuation zones that have no other way out: they're using school buses, Metro (i.e., public transit), and any other bus they can lay their hands on. These are the people that need to get out, the areas most subject to flooding.

I feel sorry for those stuck at bus stations, but they planned poorly: they've been announcing that unless you have a ticket, you waste your time and that of others by going to airports and bus stations, and they've been saying that for many hours.

I feel more sorry for those stuck at bus stops, since the buses were scheduled to run later. But the schedule changes have been all over the radio and tv, and we can't find any place open; in other words, my personal experience is that there are few business or commerce (or work) related reasons to be very far out and about.

Most of Houston is in voluntary--frequently half panicked--evacuation mode. Voluntary evacuees fall into second-class citizenship for the present, the government has ranked its priorities and decided to look after those that have the most need.

[Xenotime]

6. The ATMs are out of cash.

The situation is getting grim in Houston. Texas is basically shutting down. :cry:

[Texasgal]

9. It may be getting grim in Houston...

But Texas IS NOT shutting down.

Austin has opened several shelters as well as many other Texas towns.

Good grief!