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Friday, September 23, 2005

In the event of an actual emergency, you would have been told "You're on your own"
Posted by Jill | 7:00 AM

The Bushofascists are expending tens of thousands of keystrokes contrasting the exodus from the Houston area with the evacuation of New Orleans, using it as "proof" of Louisiana [Democratic] leader incompetence, rather than a function of fresh memories of a similar disaster making people realize that hunkering down for a Category 4 or 5 hurricane is just not a very good idea -- and of a more affluent population that can afford their own vehicles to get outta Dodge.

In fact, it's this very sea of individual gasoline-powered vehicles that create the very real possibility that some evacuees could conceivably end up stranded on Texas highways with no gas -- and up to 30 inches of rain over 48 hours anticipated.

Those who didn't leave two days ago find themselves having to drive farther and farther in bumper-to-bumper traffic to find accommodations -- and gas stations are running out of fuel.

The unprecedented flight from the flood-prone Houston area left clogged highways at a near standstill, frustrating hundreds of thousands of people whose cars and tempers were overheating.

"It can't get much worse, 100 yards an hour," steamed Willie Bayer, 70, who was heading out of Houston and trying to get to Sulphur Springs in far northeast Texas. "It's frustrating bumper-to-bumper."

The first rain bands were expected before nightfall Friday with the full fury of Rita expected into Saturday. Forecasters warned of the possibility of a storm surge of 15 to 20 feet, battering waves and rain of up to 15 inches along the Texas and western Louisiana coast.

Two communities that may bear the brunt of the storm are Beaumont, which is a petrochemical, shipbuilding and port city of about 114,000; and Port Arthur, a city of about 58,000 that's home to industries including oil, shrimping and crawfishing.

Texas officials scrambled to reroute several inbound highways to accommodate outbound traffic, but many people were waiting so long they ran out of gas and were forced to park.

"We know you're out there," Houston Mayor Bill White said of the congestion that extended well into Louisiana. "We understand there's been fuel shortages."

Texas Army National Guard trucks were escorted by police to directly provide motorists with gasoline. The state was also working to get more than 200,000 gallons of gas to fuel-starved stations in the Houston area.

By late Thursday night, the traffic was at least moving slowly, but was still backed up for about 100 miles in what White called "one of the largest mass evacuations in American history."


And this is an evacuation for a storm that comes closely on the heels on another one; a storm that NO ONE has underestimated from the time forecasts had it hitting Florida and going into the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, unlike my friends on the right, who refuse to find anything wrong with what Republicans do, I'm not going to blame Republicans for this traffic jam; for the inability to provide enough fuel for this mandatory evacuation that's been declared.

But what this does point out is the utter futility of this notion that we can somehow evacuate a major metropolitan area in the face of an ANTICIPATED disaster, let alone an unanticipated one such as a chemical or nuclear attack. The logistics just aren't there. It's like trying to force an elephant through a garden hose. Them's the facts, and all the Republican holier-than-thou crowing about buses can't change that.

It's time for Americans to face the fact that we are sitting ducks, just as most people who live in the world are sitting ducks -- sitting ducks for tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons -- and that's just the natural disasters.

This Administration has asked us to give up essential freedoms -- the freedom to read what we want; the freedom to say what we believe; the freedom to travel; the freedom to have integrity in our own homes without fear of unwarranted government searches -- so that it can "keep us safe."

Well, they can't keep us safe -- and that's the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about.

When I was growning up during the Cold War, all of America's anxieties were focused on one thing: The Russian Nuclear Bomb. As far as wel know, that was the only threat we faced, and if we could somehow stave off The Bomb, we'd be fine. But the worldview which worked in 1960 doesn't work now. The idea that we can bomb our way out of risk just doesn't hold water. There are some who would tell us to just nuke the Middle East until it's nothing but glass made from melted sand. What these people, who drive a Ford Excursion half a mile to pick up their morning donut and coffee, forget is that if you nuke the Middle East, they can't drive that behemoth anymore.

The single biggest thing we can do to "make ourselves safer" is to end our dependency on Middle Eastern energy; to stop the necessity of sucking up to the House of Saud and other unsavory types because we need what they have. We are like addicted prostitutes who put up with being beaten by their dealers because they need what the dealers offer.

And no, the answer isn't more drilling in Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico; the answer is in science -- you know, that concept that's so frightening to the Bible-thumpers. But we need a New Deal-style government-funded research push to develop renewable sources of energy, and we need it NOW. It may be too late to arrest the global warming that more scientists every day say is the cause of these more intense hurricanes, but at least we can keep the situation from getting worse.

And as for "keeping you safe", well, you always knew that ultimately you're on your own anyway, right?

UPDATE: So much for lifesaving buses when you use oxygen tanks:

A bus filled with 45 elderly Hurricane Rita evacuees from the Houston area caught fire early Friday on gridlocked Interstate 45, leaving at least 24 dead, according to local officials.

"There were 45 souls on the bus ... at this point we believe we have about half accounted for," Dallas County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Don Peritz. He said early indications were that a mechanical problem caused the blaze and that passengers' oxygen tanks caught fire.

Separately, the Dallas County Fire Marshal's office told NBC News that 24 were killed in the tragedy.

Engulfed
The bus was engulfed with flames, causing a 17-mile backup on a freeway that was already heavily congested with evacuees from the Gulf Coast.

“It burst into flames with black smoke coming from the bus, and then we saw the fire,” witness Ashley Donald told Houston television station KTRK.

The Dallas television station, citing the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, said the bus was carrying senior citizens from Bellaire, a southwest Houston enclave.

By early Friday morning, the bus was reduced to a blackened, burned-out shell, surrounded by numerous police cars and ambulances.
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