Well it was a person who did it intentionally for fun and the birds don't dodge because they assume the car will try to avoid them since that's how it use to work.
You betcha, because dealing with the mass evacuation of a few hundred thousand people is very much like dealing with a few dozen dead birds. And believe me, we all blame the City of Houston for the freeway situation during the evacuation. It's not like there's some sort of state-level Department, run by the State of Texas, focusing on Transportation, who controls the highway system, ingress/egress, contraflow lanes & whatnot; or some type of Public Safety group, possibly even a State-level Department, staffed on the ground by Troopers, who control traffic on said highway system. And those two Departments, if they did in fact exist, surely would not be based in the capitol of Texas, some city surely not named Austin.
I know of someone who got paged early in the morning when the city went on alert. It was not an overreaction. I'm proud of the way this city prepares and responds, even though we lost all humour once RM95 left town.
Just a matter of being prepared. Ahhh... the ol' Ray Nagin defense... 'it was the State's responsibility', 'it was a federal responsibility'. Only fools wouldn't blame the local officials for that debacle; 60 people lost their lives. Funny diatribe on Austin Buck, but wrong. Other than some powers the Governor may decide to retain (a governor whom Houston is more responsible for electing than Austin...Austin does not claim ownership of him or his State agencies), local authorities have the say in evacuations and evacuation plans. That is why local authorities are the ones who are now, belatedly, planning for future evacuations through the H-GAC.
on Rita -- i've seen estimates that indicate 2 million people evacuated the region. if that's the case, there's no city in the country prepared for that. there's likely no city in the world prepared for that. i've read articles since then from national editorialists that state that Houston was ahead of the game because they had at least made plans....that most cities around the nation had zero evacuation plan. i don't blame the government for that. truthfully. i am very sorry for the loss of life...for the suffering. truly, i am. but there is no way to evacuate that many people from a region in 98 degree weather without a loss of life somewhere. 1,999,940 people evacuated and made it back safely. about 25 of that 60 were involved in the bus fire. i'm sorry, but i can't pin those deaths on the government, unless you want to argue that the feds and state govt should monitor bus companies more closely and force them to keep functional extinguishers on board.
What was and was not done by the government to facilitate the evacuation? You're happy with the planning and implementation of counter-flow? The planning for gasoline supplies? Water? Food? Did you know that some exits (like Columbus) were actually closed down to hungry and thirsty Houstonians (presumably due to traffic in local downtowns)? Little was done to prepare for managing this mess, then the response was slow to impossible once it happened. People wasted hours and hours and suffered waiting for counter-flow lanes to be openned. The obvious failures in preparation resulted in new directives and initiatives after the storm. The local politicians failed. I am not aware of any Houston politician who claimed success.
How did Houston politicians fail with the issue in Columbus? People in Waco were really unfriendly to my family when we pulled into town about 4 in the morning. I wasn't real pleased with that. They had signs on restaurants that said, "bathrooms closed." I can't fault the city of Houston for that. Truthfully, this was unprecedented. I'm not "happy" with any of it. But I don't see this like I see the events that transpired pre- and post-Katrina. Not even close. We learned lessons from this event...everyone around the country did. It became a model for every city in the nation on what to do and what not to do. There is no similar evacuation to compare it, too, though, in terms of scope. That they've implemented new plans afterwards is logical to me...but it doesn't condemn local authorities in my view.
All a part of the planning for when you have 2 million of your citizens fleeing. It was not entirely unprecendented and more importantly not unexpected. Large evacuations stretch back to 1979 with 500,000 evacuating for Frederic. http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricanefrederic.htm Georges forced out 1.5 million in 1998 http://www-tech.mit.edu/V118/N45/georges.45w.html and Floyd caused 2 million to evacuate in 1999 http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14469663 both with horrendous traffic jams leading to research such as an LSU study http://hurricane.lsu.edu/&EvacuationReview.pdf . http://www.disastercenter.com/hurricf9.htm Charley caused 8000,00 to flee in 2004. Florida ordered 2.8 million to flee their homes just in the same year for Frances. http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=4856&method=full http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/13/1092340470345.html?from=storylhs There are other also, including Ivan where Lousiana sought to implement improved rules for contraflow. http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/newsrelated/ivanideasevacuations.htm In the LSU study, it was pointed out that several States have responded to the previous evac traffic jams by implementing systems like the Evacuation Travel Demand Forecasting System (Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas). And on page 14 you'll notice that of the States analyzed, Texas is only 1 of 2 where the governor cannot order an evacuation. The responsibility rests with mayors and unlike anywhere else, county judges. So we see that major hurricane evacuation traffic jams that occured in 1998 and 1999 spurred awareness and analysis. And It has always been a given that major hurricanes would bear down on Houston. With precedent, predictable... it happened... they failed... and then AFTERWARDS a team was formed to plan for future events. If you're happy with that, you set a low standard for your elected officials.
Where did I say they were of the same scale? Comparing prepared with unprepared is a simple concept. Why does it elude you?
You definitely suggested it when you said: You have no idea how Houston would react to 60 dead birds just like you have no idea how Austin would react to having to evacuate that many people. To even suggest to compare the two is absurd.
I didn't suggest anything of the sort. What I said was clear. I know how Austin prepares for emergencies. I think Austin's city government is far nore forward thinking and prepared than Houston's. Although some dead birds sounds trivial to some it can be very very serious. I hope that Austin never has to face the magnitude of a test that Houston did, bit if we do I'm glad it's our officials who are preparing for it.
Fair points, and I was unaware of those evacuations that preceded this. As I said...I was anything but happy that it took 13 hours to get to Dallas overnight with my family. It was exhausting. My 6 year old threw up in the back of the car. My baby would cry. I saw a look of desparation in the eyes of people I came across that night at gas stations that I never want to see again. It was insanely frustrating. But I don't think it will ever be easy/smooth to evacuate the 4th largest city in the country. Particulalry when it's 98 degrees outside.
