For the critics of the City of Houston I have a question

[RandySF]

Do you think you could have evacuated 2.3 million people on short notice given with the typical resources available to an American city?

[Grammy23]

1. Sure just put 'em on a Greyhound to Dallas/Ft. Worth.

Easy peasy.

[Cattledog]

2. 6.5 million is the metro area.

A lot of the flooding is outside of the city limits.

[RandySF]

6. But the Trumpsters are complaining about the mayor

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. Of course. He's a Democrat and he's black.

[narnian60]

20. Exactly.

[mcar]

3. 6.5 million

We'd be seeing shots of people drowned in their vehicles. This criticism is bogus.

[itsrobert]

4. Tesla HyperLoop

To Dallas, TX

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I was trying to imagine an emergency evacuation of my city,

Minneapolis, which doesn't have nearly the population of Houston. When you consider than even an ordinary rush hour turns into a total goat-fuck in a hard rain, I feel quite certain we couldn't evacuate everybody in two days. If it couldn't be done here it sure has hell couldn't be done in Houston.

[Cattledog]

8. 2" of snow crushed us here in Atlanta for a full week 3 years ago.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. We barely notice 2" of snow,

except that over the summer some people forget how to drive in snow, so the traffic is just terrible and stupid during the first snowfall of the year.

[RKP5637]

13. Any notions of mass city evacuations by millions is nonsense. If so, build bigger roads,

mass transport systems and accommodations.

[DURHAM D]

7. 6.5 million and they would all run out of

gas somewhere between the College Station and Waco exit. No lodging. No gas.

What a great idea. Why didn't some moran on the internuts suggest it?

[defacto7]

10. I think the mayor was correct.

He didn’t order an evacuation but did urge people to leave if they could.

It's a random natural event and there is no crystal ball to predict the future of such a thing.

[Not Ruth]

11. It is not a natural event

Climate change is not natural, it is man made

[defacto7]

18. A hurricane is a natural event that is unpredictable

beyond a matter of minutes. Human caused climate change has changed the frequncy and severity of the event. We don't make hurricanes. We disturb the environment from which natural events occur. That makes them even more unpredictable. We are definitely responsible for having no precident from which to make our vague perdictions better.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

12. I'm not a critic, but I have an alternate question:

It seems obvious that it would be better for anyone in Houston to not be there now. Because it's obvious, the government in Houston knows this, but it appears as if they did not order an evacuation because the evacuation would not have succeeded - it would have just put a lot more people in harm's way in vehicles on flooded roads. In other words, the prudent thing to do for an individual or family who could do so, would have been to leave town, but the government - because it has to consider the entire population - could not recommend the prudent thing.

So my question, which I guess I just answered, is: "Assuming that someone has a choice in the matter (because they have transportation and the means to stay out of town), should they do what the government says, or should they take responsibility for their own safety and that of their family, and do what they feel is prudent?

I'm not in Texas, but the lesson I've learned from every disaster that's ever happened in my lifetime is: "Don't depend on the government, unless you want to be on the evening news."

[crosinski]

17. Since were about thirty miles away from a nuclear power plant, this is a relevant question for us.

We've decided that we'll shelter in place, sealing our windows and doors with plastic sheeting and duct tape, or evacuate depending on the direction of the wind at the time of the disaster. We're near Lake Michigan, so our escape routes are limited, and the winds do change a lot. We'll listen to the advice given by the local, state, and federal government, but we'll do what we have to do based on our own knowledge and forethought. We've got go-bags packed for us and our critters.

On the bright side, you wouldn't believe how cheap our electric bills are here.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

19. My first "real" job was as an entry-level plant

engineer at a nuclear plant in Southern California (San Onofre). I got free electricity as a company perk! I think there was a limit to the free power each month, but I never hit it as a bachelor in a 1-bedroom beach apartment.

I think your plan is sound. Nuclear plants have full-time, on-site government inspectors, required notifications for anything even remotely safety-related, and well-developed plans for public notification. I never felt unsafe at the plant or living nearby.

[Igel]

15. Nobody would plan on evacuating the whole area.

Seems like a waste of resources.

The evacuation plans target the most at risk communities for when a hurricane hits. The plan looks at proximity to the bay (elevation, in other words), proximity to bayous that could carry the storm surge inland. There are different "zones" that start near the port and extend to about mid-town.

Except for along some bayous, by the time you get to the east-west midpoint the evacuation ends. Much of the flooding that's been reported isn't in an evacuation zone.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

16. 100 people died evacuating in 2005

Houston area officials who urged people to stay home before the storm may have been remembering that the city government was strongly criticized after the disastrous evacuation before Hurricane Rita in 2005.

In the hours before Rita struck the Houston area in September 2005, government officials issued an evacuation order, and some 2.5 million people hit the road at the same time, according to the Houston Chronicle.

More than 100 people died in the mass exit from the city — almost as many as were killed by the hurricane itself.

Dozens were injured or died of heat stroke waiting in traffic for nearly a full day. Fights broke out on clogged highways. A charter bus carrying people from a nursing home exploded on the side of Interstate 45, killing 24 people inside.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/harvey-is-causing-%e2%80%98epic-catastrophic-flooding%e2%80%99-in-houston-why-wasn%e2%80%99t-the-city-evacuated/ar-AAqNzHI?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp