Hurricane Rita Evacuations and evacs. in general

[Free4Life11]

I'm not being critical, I'm just asking a question. I saw an aerial video (not live, it was a clip) of some people fleeing Houston or some area. Well one side of the highway was COMPLETELY PACKED, but the other side was empty. Not a single car. I was just wondering, are they unable to open up the other side of the highway for people to drive on that side too? Maybe they have to keep it open for people to get into the cities??

Maybe highways need to be widened. One guy on our local news talked by cell phone and said he left at 6 a.m. and had gone 31 miles, this was the 5 p.m. news....people were running out of gas! I guess he was stuck in a McDonald's parking lot without any food or gas.

[Lisa loves Pooh]

This happened in Floyd in Florida--just an unexpected amount of overkill on the evac's...everyone getting out of dodge before the ones that NEED to get out have the chance to do so. Florida has since modified the plan--and while they may not always open the lanes (we are long gone before it gets to that point)..if they perceive they need to, they will.

Widening highways take a long time to do---and for a very infrequent event, not the most practical.

I heard they were going to open contra-flow....but evidently that takes some time to do.

In NOLA--the contra flow was outside the city--b/c within city limits..it would not make sense to have contra flow as people could still be running errands, taking care of last minute needs and such.

Perhaps the images you are seeing are in the city of Houston--and if it is within the city, it might not be a very logical action.


This will definitely catch the state's attention and they will finesse the process for next time. We kind of fixed it in Florida without building extra lanes that weren't already in the works for just general everyday transportation purposes.

You'll always have traffic--but there are ways to make it more efficient. During the evacuation however--if that isn't already in the plan...it is kind of hard to fix then and there...but it can be fixed the next time.

[Free4Life11]

I see.

The problem is the videos on TV...you never know if they are live or old, what time of day, where...they need to have labels. I was just shocked, 4 lanes wide of traffic, PLUS it looked like 3 extra lanes NEXT to the highway!! Insane!

Here in Nebraska, it's 3 lanes in some areas, but once you get out of the city most routes cut down to 2 lanes....:earseek:

[Talking Hands]

The thing with evacuations is you need to have alternative routes that you can use. For instance the most logical evacuation route would be the Florida Turnpike whihc everyone will be using. Since we live near Krome Ave which goes into US 27 through the middle of the state for us it may be better to use this route over the turnpike. This is the route my husband used to evacuate for hurricane Andrew and once he got past Tamiami Trail it was a clear and green all they way to Orlando.

[Planogirl]

Part of the problem is that the road they show most often I-45 is quite wide throughout the Houston area but once you get to the north of Houston, it gradually shrinks in size. I would imagine that shrinkage is causing a lot of the gridlock.

People have been more successful taking backroads form what I understand. But then you have to have a good map and a willingness to explore. Some people like my DH are very uneasy about getting off the main road.

[bsnyder]

1.8 million people are under mandatory evacuations in Texas. They have instituted contra flow as of this afternoon, but it takes some time to have the intended affect.

I have a question, if any Houston people are still on here (or anyone else who knows the answer)....do they not have any public shelters open, outside of the low lying evacuation zones, in the greater Houston area? I've looked at some websites and it doesn't seem that they do, but maybe I'm just missing something?

[Lisa F]

From what I've been reading there are no shelters in houston... all of the shelters are further inland in places like huntsville etc.

[sillypiggi]

I'm not being critical, I'm just asking a question. I saw an aerial video (not live, it was a clip) of some people fleeing Houston or some area. Well one side of the highway was COMPLETELY PACKED, but the other side was empty. Not a single car. I was just wondering, are they unable to open up the other side of the highway for people to drive on that side too? Maybe they have to keep it open for people to get into the cities??

Maybe highways need to be widened. One guy on our local news talked by cell phone and said he left at 6 a.m. and had gone 31 miles, this was the 5 p.m. news....people were running out of gas! I guess he was stuck in a McDonald's parking lot without any food or gas.

Actually, no city had ever tried to open up the other side of the highway in an emergency situation like this. Houston Authority actually is the first one that is attempting to do it! They just opened up the opposite lanes for I-45 at noon today, and they will do the same for 290 and I-10 soon--hopefully tonight.

Personally, I think the reason that no one has ever done it is b/c opening up the opposite lanes would really create chaos when the cars reach the destinated city. Just try to imagine 4 lanes of cars trying to merge back to the original traffic! Not to mention after sitting in the traffic for 14+ hours, pepz will not be civil about letting the cars come back to the lane. Accidents will much more likely to happen which will slow down traffic BIG TIME. I wonder how Houston authority have resolved this issue.

[Free4Life11]

All I know is that I'm glad we don't have to evacuate for hurricanes. Honestly, I'd never consider living near the coast, except maybe New England.

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Actually, no city had ever tried to open up the other side of the highway in an emergency situation like this.

New Orleans did it.

[RadioNate]

The contra flow lanes are open all the way to Seguin TX which is near San Antonio. They are opening them as fast as they can. More than a million people are leaving Houston.

There is also the problem of cars that are out of gas, and the fact that many gas stations are now out of gas.

We heard TXdot was going to send in tanker trucks to refill the stranded cars but I don't know how they will get there now that everything is contra flow.

[Belle1962]

Contraflow lanes also can not be opened until the Govt is certain that supplies and equipment that are needed are staged in the area. They need to have access INTO the area for emergency needs.