Houston had secret plan to avoid a repeat of Superdome scene

[Rose Siding]

I was so glad to read this, never believing it was a good idea not to have shelters local to the storm areas.
These guys came through...

Mayor stayed mum on last-resort plans
White, Noriega worked quietly to avoid a repeat of Superdome scene

As Hurricane Rita bore down on the Gulf Coast last week, Mayor Bill White asked State Rep. Rick Noriega to set up an elaborate system of secret, last-resort shelters across the city.

When the storm raked the city Friday night, the makeshift shelters in Houston Independent School District buildings protected more than 5,000 stranded, homeless or otherwise needy people from a wet, windy night on the streets.

White, who was trying to encourage voluntary evacuation, had said repeatedly that the city wouldn't open last-minute shelters. He said Saturday that he kept Noriega's mission quiet to avoid a mass — and potentially dangerous — 11th-hour migration to shelters.

"We avoided the type of situation you saw during Katrina," he said, referring to storm victims being stranded for days under filthy conditions in the Louisiana Superdome and other shelters.

.....Others at the shelters, officials said, had been stranded on freeways in disabled cars or found wandering the streets in the hours before the storm came ashore.

........MORE........

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3368466

That might not work more than once (who knows- the public isn't famous for its attention span) but I commend these two Democrats.

[Cha]

1. AMazing that there are two

Democrats down there running things!

[Rose Siding]

4. Noriega was one of the Killer Ds

so I liked him already ;)

[Cha]

5. Cool! Teach me not to

pay attention..I thought they would all be perrys or bushes.

Course, bush will try to Power Grab all the Credit and ATTENTION! Monster!

[CornField]

2. There will never be a time when everyone will leave

There will always be some who try to leave, but have obstacles preventing them from it.

When I first heard "no shelters" my mind immediately went to the homeless. Where would they go? My hat does tip to the many good-hearted Texans out there, but I just don't see many families (most of them riding around with all their valuables) welcoming homeless people to evacuate with them, much less be stuck in traffic with them for 20+ hours.

[Catherine Vincent]

3. That's good to know they had plans behind the scenes.