Plans for Rita

Changes Should Ease Highway Traffic Flow
All Lanes Of I-45, Highway 290, I-10 To Be Outbound Only

POSTED: 7:17 am CDT September 22, 2005
UPDATED: 7:25 am CDT September 22, 2005

HOUSTON -- City, county and state officials announced Thursday morning that all lanes of Interstate 45 will flow northbound from Houston to Buffalo, about 130 miles north of the Bayou City.

Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Janelle Gbur said the change would go into effect at about 9 a.m.

Gov. Rick Perry made the decision Thursday morning to alleviate bumper-to-bumper evacuation traffic on the primary evacuation route.

KPRC Local 2 has reported that northbound traffic on I-45 is bumper-to-bumper for up to 100 miles north of Houston.

Once the changes on Interstate 45 have been implemented, road authorities will begin setting up similar plans on Highway 290, which leads to Bryan/College Station and Austin, and on Interstate 10 toward San Antonio.

Gbur and Cox said this is the first time the state has ever taken such a step. They also said the plan is an improvisation and has never been part of the state's emergency plan.


http://www.click2houston.com/automotive/5005714/detail.html

 

Has anybody heard how bad is it on I-10? I'm curious as to know if it's as bad as I-45.

 

It's northwest of austin by 50 miles I think. Not expected to be in the hurricanes path.

 

well ****. 290 is backed up at least til hempstead/6. i think i'm gonna go the back way to college station then jump on 21 to san marcos.

 

One word: HORRIBLE.

 

I would still head south down 59 then eventually find somewhere to go from there.

 

Im glad I went with my instinct.

We were going to leave early this morning, around 5 and head to Austin. If we had done that, wed probably be only to Hempstead by now (from Magnolia).

Instead, we left at 7:30 last night. We got to Hempstead and 290 was a parking lot. So we turned around and went FM 362 (off of 1488) to 105. 105 to Hwy 6. Hwy 6 up to Hearne and then 79 into Round Rock (which is where our hotel is). ONLY TOOK US 2 1/2 HOURS GOING THIS WAY. NO TRAFFIC AT ALL!!!!!!!!

Explore alternative routes guys.

The best thing is, since we got here last night, our room is guaranteed through Sunday. We were worried about getting here today and the hotel having people refuse to check out.

 

I have family in SugarLand and they decided to stay, is safe there?

Good luck guys, stay safe and we will be praying for you.

 

Sugar Land should be fine, as it's a good 45 miles inland.

 

I was watching the steaming video on KHOU. The estimates were that winds would be in the 60-80 mph range in Sugar Land. I have absolutely no idea if that is just branch breaking force or tree tipping force, though.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I know several people in Sugarland who evacuated...I would advise them to leave.

 

Anything's better than this:

 

Sugar Land was not affected by Allison at all, let's hope it would be the same this time.

 

I think some folks might be interested in this so I'm cross-posting:

 

From the stormriders thread....

 

plans for rita, hmmmm...

stayed inside all day today (right next to hwy 6, so it's not like i could go out). just finished watching "xxx: state of the union" w/ice cube on direct tv ("my tv sucks"... will suck even more when this 'cane hits... i'm sure there won't be a signal). a couple of weeks ago, i stumbled across game four vs orlando, so i'll probably watch that a few times.

got a carton of benson and hedges menthol ultra lights (smoothest menthols ever) and a bottle of gin w/pinapple juice before places started closing up, so i'm set and ready to go.

 

I am one of those people, although with kids and pets, I gave up much earlier rather than getting stranded without fuel.

 

Drive 60-80 mph. Stick hand out window carefully. This is what 60-80 mph winds feel like.