Go ahead, ask me how was my day? Everything you are seeing on the news about the traffic gridlock in Houston is true. We left home around 7:30 this morning from southwest Houston (Richmond-Rosenberg area), headed for Austin. Me, my husband & his dialysis machine, my two kids, Grandma, and the dog. We were caravanning with a friend, her two kids and her sister's dog. We both had minivans with full tanks of gas.
We decided to try Hwy 90-A, which runs parallel to I-10, because we thought it might be less packed. Right off the bat we encountered gridlock in Richmond. There are several traffic lights, and a big backup at the intersection of Hwy 36, which is an evacuation route from the south. There was not a cop or sheriff in sight to direct traffic. ( I am going to be writing a nasty letter to them about that.) We probably burned three hours to go about ten miles.
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The situation did not improve at all. We saw huge lines of people at the few open gas stations. There were few if any places open to buy food or drinks for people who needed them. After about 5 hours, we had to take a bathroom break. We were pretty much out in the country at this point, but finally found an open gas station (which still had gas) and a two-seater restroom. The wait in line for the restroom took about an hour.
By this time the temperature on my car thermometer was over 100 degrees. People were trying to ride without using the A/C because they thought it would save gas. Lots of people had dogs in crates riding in the back of pickups. The radio station we had on told about one family stuck on I-45 (the worst jam) whose dog suffered heat stroke and died even though they tried to revive it with water; they left the crate by the side of the road, covered with a blanket.
Our average speed was 5 mph. There were no gas stations open. Senator Cornyn kept coming on the radio saying how pleased he was that everyone listened to the authorities and evacuated, and that we should all be patient and we would get through the traffic safely.
At 7:30 p.m. it was getting dark; we had been on the road 12 hours and had gone 55 miles. It was another 100 miles to Austin, and we had half a tank of gas. If I thought we could get more gas, we would have kept going, but we decided we would be better off turning around and going back home. I'd rather ride out the storm in my house (which does have hurricane clips on the roof) than be sitting in my van by the side of the road when the 100 mph winds come roaring through.
I'm hoping that Rita keeps heading toward Beaumont; if she does, we should be okay here. But I'm scared to death for all those people still stuck out there on the roads. Every road was gridlocked, not just the freeways. Even though thousands of people started evacuating yesterday or sooner, and last night at midnight the roads were already packed, the mayor and TXDOT did not start the contraflow lanes on the freeways until late this afternoon. There was a long radio interview with a woman who was a Katrina evacuee, who was now trying to evacuate from Rita. She was extraordinarily frustrated because she had been in traffic for hours and had barely moved, and like us was worried about running out of gas. She said when they evacuated New Orleans, the authorities immediately turned all the I-10 lanes to one direction, and she got to Houston from N.O. in 7 1/2 hours, which is only about 2 hours longer than normal.
This is another disaster that proves Homeland Security has done absolutely nothing in four years. Or have they said that "no one could have anticipated evacuating a city the size of Houston?" Well, shouldn't they have anticipated maybe having to do it someday?
I am frustrated and scared, because I am responsible for my mom and kids and I really don't want my house to be totalled, either. We are going to reevaluate the situation in the morning, and see if anybody around here has gotten another shipment of gas. Maybe we'll head out again, assuming the gridlock has cleared.
Oh by the way, when we finally decided to turn around and go back home, it took just one hour. Although we nearly had a couple of head-on collisions with jerks who were driving on the wrong side of the road, trying to get around all the traffic. I had a nice cold beer when I got home and now I'm going to bed. I better not wake up and find the damn thing has turned back west again.
P.S. On a slightly lighter note, we had the radio on all day and the weather forecasters keep talking about the "cone of uncertainty." My husband and I couldn't help thinking "cone of silence" every time we heard it. (Get Smart reference, for you youngsters.)