The evacuation was successful because by the time Rita hit, there was no one on the highways. Remember that by Friday, most of the highways in houston were clear. My Uncle left from Kemah and arrived in Spring within 2 hours on Friday. You are correct that we will have a more experience to coordinate the a better evacuation route.
There's not one. The point is, under the Homeland Security bill and the National Response Plan, DHS/FEMA has the ability and the direction to take over when it is apparent state and local resources will be overwhelmed... they don't have to wait until loacal and state officials are overwhelmed. Whether they are overwhelmed because of the logistics of the situation or the incompetence of officials makes no difference. Disasters are not to ba managed like they were before 9/11. Seriously, everyone arguing about FEMA's role and how they have performed in the past is living in a pre 9/11 world. The National Response Plan is clear... it is the responsibility of DHS/FEMA. Shout out all you want about the Mayor and the Gov and lord knows I'm not defending them, but the buck stops with the Feds... who didn't get the job done. If a dirty bomb goes off in the middle of Chicago or a biological agent is spread around LA, is DHS/FEMA going to wait until they have the correct papers from the Governors? No. (I guess I can't really say that... they are not required to do so.) And on Rita, we were lucky. Very lucky. The conversations going on when there was a chance the eye would come close to Houston were frankly, frightening.
I agree with you that FEMA should step in quicker for larger hurricanes, but I think there should be a clause about Lousiana, and to Federalize the response for any hurricane that is pointed at the state. Texas, Florida, MS, Alabama, the Carolinas can all manage there hurricane response, but because of the ingrained incompetence of the most local and state politicians, they should not be in charge. I also think you hit on something that no one really talks about. What if the big one hits LA, should FEMA take charge immediately or let Cali take care of it?
Pass what you are smoking dude!!! Friday, we knew that Rita was not likely a direct hit to Galveston/Houston AND that Rita was no longer a Cat 5 storm. I chose to not to live in your world of revised history. Carry on.
Sorry you are wrong! Accuweather was still reporting as well as NOAC that Houston and Galveston were in the window, but you are right the storm did decrease to a cat 4 and then a cat 3 on impact. Thanks for playing! Please drive through! <img src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e339/phi83/internetarguing.jpg" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket">
Wrong, buddy. I stayed in town due to the fact that I was inland and had been through Alicia. I really wasn't worried about a direct hit. Friday evening, it was still being reported that the storm was still very likely to hit Houston directly. We were indeed supposed to get hit much more severely up until about 1:00 in the morning, when the weathermen finally conceded that we had been spared. Where, exactly were you and what were you watching? It certainly wasn't any of the 4 local Houston networks.
I think that Rim's point is that FEMA should be mobilized and ready to step in. And that they should do so as soon as needed.
I recall this: Wednesday: direct hit Thursday: hit High Island, north of Galveston Friday: between Houston and Beaumont, Cat 4 Saturday: Beaumont, Cat 3 The Houston TV stations reported this and yet continued to *scare* their viewers Friday and Saturday. Friday onward, Houston stopped being in the path and on the dirty side of the storm. Staying and not evacuating became tenable. The mass evacuation that Houstonians attempted on Wednesday and Thursday was a failure. More than half of the people who attempted to leave, gave up, and came back home. Those who did leave spent 12-24 hours getting to Austin/San Antonio/Dallas. If Rita had hit Houston at Cat 5 strength, the devastation and loss of life would have been catestrophic. Rita showed Houston one very important lesson. We are not prepared for a complete evacuation. Our outgoing freeways do not have the capacity. And our elected officials did not and likely still do not have a plan to efficiently turn the incoming freeway lanes into contraflow lanes. It is an open question whether the contraflow lanes would have even had enough capacity.
Again, were you here!?! This town was desolate on Friday evening, which was btw, the night it was supposed to hit. Not Saturday. While the evacuation took far longer than was expected, it did evacuate the city by the time the storm arrived. And for ALLLL the people who stayed to weather the storm, where were they Saturday after the storm had passed? The freeways were STILL bare, as were all three apartment complexes I went to. MOST didn't turn around and come back home. You obviously weren't here.
I think the Federal Government needs a department to wipe our noses and hold our hand going to the restroom.
FEMA failed to accept Katrina help, documents say Homeland Security: 'Of course' not all assets were used By Jeanne Meserve CNN Washington Bureau http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/30/katrina.fema/ WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal emergency officials failed to accept offers of possibly life-saving aid from the Department of Interior immediately after Hurricane Katrina, according to documents obtained by CNN. The Interior Department offered the Federal Emergency Management Agency the use of personnel who were experienced in water rescues and also offered boats, helicopters, heavy equipment and rooms, the documents say. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of a Senate committee with jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, said the additional resources may have saved lives. "It is indeed possible that there was additional suffering and maybe even loss of life that might not have occurred if these assets had been deployed," Collins said. Her panel, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is set to hold hearings Monday looking into the search-and-rescue response to Katrina. A spokesman for Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, says the Bush administration is examining how to better utilize federal and other resources in catastrophes. But, he observed, "Were there federal assets that were not used in Katrina? Of course." The Interior Department offered FEMA 500 rooms, 119 pieces of heavy equipment, 300 dump trucks and other vehicles, 300 boats, 11 aircraft and 400 law enforcement officers, according to a questionnaire answered by a department official. Interior law enforcement officers included special agents and refuge officers from the department's Fish and Wildlife Service. "Although we attempted to provide these assets, we were unable to efficiently integrate and deploy these resources," an Interior Department official wrote the Senate committee investigating the government's response to Katrina. Collins said she is particularly concerned by the fact that the offer of help was from the federal government. "Now, you might be able to understand if it came from outside government," she said. "But this is another federal agency, an agency that was offering trained personnel and exactly the assets that the federal government needed to assist in the search-and-rescue operations." Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the committee's senior Democrat, says in a draft statement for Monday's hearing that "the greatest honor we can pay those who risked their lives in the aftermath of Katrina would be to make sure that the heroes of the next catastrophe ... are given the proper equipment and the clear plan they need to succeed..." According to government officials, 1,322 people died from Katrina, all but 15 of the deaths occurring in Louisiana and Mississippi. The Senate committee released e-mails that document FEMA's decision to ground its search-and-rescue teams three days after Katrina because of security concerns. Before then, the Interior Department had offered FEMA hundreds of law enforcement officers trained in search-and-rescue, emergency medical services and evacuation, according to the documents. "The Department of the Interior was not called upon to assist until late September," the Interior official writes. A FEMA document provided to the Senate committee indicates that many of the Interior Department's resources, which included transportation, communications and engineering, were never integrated into FEMA's planning for a catastrophic hurricane. That planning was still incomplete August 29, when Katrina roared ashore.
My brother's home was severely damaged from Rita (He's not even in East Texas really.) But FEMA and Red Cross both responded very quickly to his needs. That certainly isn't proof of overall effectiveness by any means, but it is relevant. As rimrocker pointed out FEMA was different pre-9/11. It is now FEMA's job to handle these kinds of emergencies. I don't see any problem in laying a portion of the blame in the laps of the people who have the responsibility. In this case that is FEMA. Like I said I fault local and state officials as well.
As far as blame, I am quite sure FEMA could have performed better. In fact I am surprised if they did anything right. My point is that hurricane emergency plans are all made at the local level in every state, no state previously had any reason to believe that FEMA would effectively be the point lead help, and it is foolish for any governor or mayor to expect FEMA to bail them out of any emergency. There was no previous track record to support any dependence on FEMA- even with homeland security; Florida had already had at least 3 hurricane hits under homeland security so the FEMA track record was right there for Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and North Carolina to observe. Point is all of these states including Louisiana knew previously that local and state officials had primary emergency response responsibility. And New Orleans and Louisiana had drawn up there emergency plans accordingly. What happened in New Orleans was tragic, but trying to hang an inept federal agency is just plain political gobble-gook. Post New Orleans, I am sure FEMA is going to be pressured to take more control of emergencies. That is another tragedy as the nation is further federalized. FEMA already has too much power. We would be better served as a nation to leave emergency management in the leadership of local officials. We are selling America down the river of federal tyranny. I wish there was no FEMA.
as for mass evacuations....the Rita evacuation was the largest in American history. some 2 million people left in about a 48 hour period. it wasn't fun. i participated in it. but it's never gonna go much better than that. there are way too many variables. interestingly, houston is among the only cities in the country that actually HAVE an evacuation plan. there are certainly things they could have done better. but being that this is the first time this was ever done to this scale, i thought it went about as well as could be expected.
Next time a cat 5 hurricane comes towards my house in Clear Lake to put it under 20 feet of water I aint going anywhere because I dont trust them there forecasts and the government neither. That weatherman looks fruity anyways... Yee-haw!
