Reply #96: Exodus from Rita’s wrath slow going

[Kailassa]

Exodus from Rita’s wrath slow going

‘‘This is the worst planning I’ve ever seen,’’ said Judie Anderson, who covered just 72 kilometres in 12 hours after setting out from her home in the Houston suburb LaPorte. ...

In all, nearly two million people along the Texas and Louisiana coasts were urged to move out of the way of Rita, a 640-kilometre-wide storm that weakened Thursday from a top-of-the-scale Category 5 hurricane to a Category 4 as it swirled across the Gulf of Mexico. ...

Drivers ran out of gas in 14-hour traffic jams or looked in vain for a place to stay as hotels filled up all the way to the Oklahoma and Arkansas line. Others became tired of waiting in traffic and turned around and went home. ...

Ewing said the car had moved just 2.2 kilometres in 4 1/2 hours, but they were glad to be on the less congested Interstate 90. ‘‘If we run out of gas I don’t know what we’re going to do,’’ Ewing said. ...

http://www.brandonsun.com/story.php?story_id=4703