Report from Houston
My mom, who lives in Houston, spent much of today trying to get out. Getting on Interstate 10 about 4AM, she doesn't seem to have made even 60 miles my 8PM at night, where she just plain couldn't drive any more. Since she somehow got separated from my sister in their driving convoy, she pulled to the side of the road to rest. Fortunately, a local minister and a fireman took her to a local shelter at a fire station to sleep tonight, where she reports all is well (many props to those folks). Hopefully she can make it to San Antonio tomorrow, and hopefully they have not given away her reservation.
She reports that gas availability seems to worry folks the most. No one was running their air conditioning, to save gas, and traffic was moving so slow that several were pushing their cars with the engine off down the road rather than running the engine. There is apparently gas in inventory in the area, but tank trucks can't get to stations since inbound traffic is blocked. Also, cars seem to be taking literally hours just to get to the next exit. Yuk.
Since I grew up in Houston and know the people there fairly well, I can make one prediction: They will evacuate this time, if only as part of the post-Katrina panic, but if the city is not leveled they are not going to do it again any time soon, no matter what is coming at them.
Update: Mom is back on the road this morning, and traffic is moving much better. She reports she is 99 miles from San Antonio and has a half tank of gas. That means in her first 27 hours of travel she made less than 100 miles of progress. She says that there are hundreds of cars by the sides of the road that have run out of gas.
Final Update: Mom reached SA OK, and in fact as of Monday morning is back at home in Houston. The power is on, the cable is running, and the house is fine. Mom lives does not live in a low-lying area, and her house has survived many hurricanes. I know that Rita veered off from Houston, but was it really safer for her to be on the road for 30 hours, with no place to sleep at night, worrying every minute about running out of gas?
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