Houston News: Houston Hurricane Evacuation Plan Revised

The governor should be in charge of ordering hurricane evacuations and ensuring gas and other supplies are available to avoid a repeat of the chaos that hit Texans fleeing Hurricane Rita, a task force recommended Monday, reports Houston News.

About 60 people died during September's evacuation as Rita churned in the Gulf of Mexico, including 23 residents of a Houston-area assisted-living facility whose bus exploded near Dallas. Some people died from heat exhaustion and heart attacks after long hours in their cars without water or air conditioning, while others were killed in traffic accidents.

"The process could have been smoother," Gov. Rick Perry said while announcing the findings of the task force, which held a series of hearings around the state. "This report will improve planning and coordination, which will result in more effective hurricane response when lives hang in the balance and every second counts."

Centralized control over evacuations would be an improvement over the system allowing local officials to order them, the task force found. But Perry noted that even a well-developed and orderly plan can't circumvent gridlock if people don't listen.

"There is a reason they call it chaotic when there is a hurricane or any other major disaster like that," Perry said. "And there are always going to be those who don't necessarily follow our instructions."

The task force, which gathered data and testimony in six cities, made 21 recommendations to Perry in five areas: command, control and communication; evacuation of people with special needs; fuel availability; flow of traffic; and public awareness.

Perry said he'll take some of those recommendations to the Legislature.
Houston Mayor Bill White said it was inexcusable that there wasn't enough fuel along highways. Local and state officials now realize they quickly must make use of all of the lane capacity they have on evacuation routes, he said.

"We ought to learn from the lessons of what we did right and what we did wrong," he said. "It is the best learning experience we will ever have."

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