Hurricane Rita is storming towards Texas — and Louisiana — and everyone is trying to learn the lessons and avoid the mistakes of Hurricane Katrina….a storm now considered one of the worst natural (and political) disasters in U.S. history:
- (1)Texans are getting out of the Houston/Galveston areas en mass, not making mistakes of New Orleans residents who stayed behind — with some of them eventually paying the ultimate price.
- (2)State and local officials were trying to pull out all stops to avoid the widely reported failings of state and local officials in Lousiana during Katrina.
- (3)The Bush administration realizes that more than ever that it’s under the microscope to see whether the administration in general and FEMA in particular handles the storm quickly, efficiently and competently.
Are they succeeding? It’s too early too tell but as Rita morphed “down” into a Category 4 (theoretically some claim it could get big again) reports are somewhat contradictory.
The one thing that’s certain amid the reports of travelers running out of gas as they try to leave Houston and predictions that damage to the oil industry could shove gas prices up to $5 a gallon: due to news coverage and images of Hurricane Katrina everyone involved knows what’s at stake so the sense of urgency is far greater than during the Hurricane Katrina’s early days when all levels of government and much of the populace seemed caught flat-footed.
In Houston, highways resembled something out of a disaster movie, according to the Houston Chronicle:
Sixteen hours to San Antonio and Dallas. Eleven hours to Austin. With over a million people trying to flee vulnerable parts of the Houston area, Hurricane Rita will be a nightmare even if Galveston doesn’t take a direct hit. .
Trying to leave Houston on I-10, Ella Corder drove 15 hours to go just 13 miles today. Noticing cars out of gas littering the freeway, she turned off her air-conditioner to save fuel, but the 52-year-old heart patient worried the heat and exhaustion were taking a toll on her.
“All I want to do is go home,” she said tearfully by cell phone. “Can’t anyone get me out of here? ”
Other evacuees’ frustration turned into anger as the day wore on.
“This is the worst planning I’ve ever seen,” said Julie Anderson, who covered just 45 miles in 12 hours after setting out from her home in the Houston suburb of LaPorte. “They say we’ve learned a lot from Hurricane Katrina. Well, you couldn’t prove it by me.”
Hoping to speed the evacuation that officially began yesterday, authorities decided today to open the incoming lanes of two Houston freeways, I-45 and I-10, to outbound traffic for the first time ever. Plans to reverse the traffic flow on U.S. 290 were abandoned because of traffic problems it would create in Brenham and Giddings.
Was one of the key mistakes of New Orleans being repeated — where people who didn’t have money, transportation, standing in the commmunity — the very low income, the homeless — were left behind? Again there were troubling reports like this one from the Houston Chronicle’s hurricane blog:
At Market Square Park, John Harold sat on a bench, staring at nothing in particular. He was wearing the same army-green jacket and sneakers that he has for months.
”Hopefully someone will pick me up. The hurricane is worrying me, but there’s nowhere I can go,” he said. And with the lights of the downtown restaurants dimmed or turned off and the constant hum of construction gone, it felt as though he was right.
From the center of the park, however, there was noise: A big, surly argument.
”Tienen que ir algún lado porque todo esto se va (al infierno),” said Humberto Mendez, 67. (You guys need to find shelter, because all this is going to hell.)
Mendez said he’s watched over the five Cuban homeless men who hang out at the park for years. Antonio Cuella, Nelson Martinez and Segundo Porro laughed at the suggestion. They had nothing to do, but to sit around a huge bottle to make their worries disappear.
It didn’t work for Donna Reynolds. She was in a corner, tears dripping down her cheek. The thing is, all these people at this park were disconnected. They didn’t know that the Star of Hope just a mile away could take them in. They didn’t know they could call the city to bus them out. They didn’t know that Rita was at one point the third strongest hurricane in history.
So the Cubans drank and Reynolds cried.
An exception to the rule? Perhaps. Given the frenzy of all levels of government not to face “the blame game” (the code phrase used when voters of all parties demand answers about poor or incompetent job performances by government officials of various levels during Hurricane Katrina) it’s likely by now that all of the folks in that particular post have been whisked into safety by now.
But what about the others who don’t get publicity? Are there many of them? Too early to tell. But, again, its unlikely they will be forgotten if they come to someone’s attention.
Attytood blog says “They Have Learned Nothing” and gives another dramatic example of a low income woman stranded in Houston. The blog then declares:”Where are the buses? Where’s Michael Chertoff, and where’s R. David Paulison? Most important, where’s Bush? Rita is about 39 hours from land. Somebody needs to get their asses moving. And focus.”
At his press conference, President George Bush in effect vowed to run a right ship on responding to this storm and was asked about differences between Katrina and Rita:
Well, I think one thing that’s different is people understand the need to evacuate more clearly. I saw the Mayor of Galveston, Texas on TV, and she said that the people of her city seemed to have learned one of the lessons, and that is, take the evacuation orders very seriously. And so there appears to be a significant evacuation from parts of the Texas coast to get out of harm’s way.
Secondly, we’ve got Admiral Hereth on the ground; he’s a Coast Guard Admiral. He’ll be Admiral Allen’s counterpart in Texas. He’s there in Texas ready to go.
Like Katrina, we’re moving federal assets to be in position to move in. For example, the USS Iwo Jima, where we were the other day, has left New Orleans and is now tracking in behind the storm ready to bring Marines and choppers into place. But that’s not really that different from Katrina. We had choppers moving very quickly. In this case, though, we’re able to come in behind the storm.
As you might remember, we had equipment that was — had to come across the land to fight through the storm to get there. This time we’re going to be able to bring some assets around behind it, which I — will help get people — get some rescue missions there as quickly as possible.
But I think the biggest difference is people are aware of the danger of these storms, and people are responding at all levels of government.
Meanwhile, there clearly seem several huge tolls this storm could exact: the human toll and the financial toll, as the New York Times notes:
Depending on how severe it is when it makes landfall, Hurricane Rita could deliver an even greater temporary blow to economic activity than Katrina, largely because of the greater scale of the local economy and the considerably bigger concentration of energy facilities in Texas than in Louisiana and Mississippi.
A major disruption to the nation’s strained oil refining and distribution network – which some experts said could last for weeks – could send gasoline and other fuel prices soaring.
The hurricane could also wreak significant environmental havoc, because the Texas coast is dotted with large petrochemical plants that store large quantities of dangerous chemicals.
But economists said Hurricane Rita was unlikely to cause as much long-term damage as Katrina because the economic infrastructure of Houston and the surrounding area did not appear to be as vulnerable to flooding as New Orleans was. “It’s hard to envision a scenario,” said Mark Zandi, Economy.com’s chief economist, “where Houston is impacted anywhere near as much as New Orleans.”
The Washington Post offers more details, such as:
That area is home to about 700,000 people, 15 percent of the metro population. It includes the Johnson Space Center, which sits about 20 miles southeast of downtown Houston in a low-lying area threaded by bayous. NASA evacuated the space center Wednesday, shifting ground control over the International Space Station to a Russian space agency facility outside Moscow.
Also subject to flooding are Texas City and other centers of chemical production and petroleum refining. As they did before Hurricane Katrina, environmentalists worry that Rita could cause the release of toxic pollutants at one or more of the 87 chemical plants, oil refineries or petroleum storage facilities along the Texas coast.
“Dozens of chemical plants and petroleum facilities lie in Hurricane Rita’s path, many of which may not be adequately prepared to prevent toxic releases,” said Tom Natan, research director of the National Environmental Trust.
In an editorial, USA Today looks at some of the problems with this storm, but puts response into an overall favorable context:
The storms are remarkably similar. Barely four weeks apart, Katrina and Rita each peaked in the Gulf of Mexico as a rare Category 5 hurricane with 175 mph winds.
What’s different is the response. Less than a month after the Katrina disaster, nearly everyone seems wiser for the experience. That’s of little solace to Katrina’s victims, but going second should benefit those in Rita’s path.As Rita churned toward the Gulf Coast of Texas, the state’s governor and local leaders showed they were heeding Katrina’s lessons. In Galveston, the mayor sent teams door to door to identify people unable to leave on their own and provided transportation for them.
Washington was intent on not blowing it again. Instead of a former Arabian-horse judge running the show at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the president was involved, and the military was already on alert. Yet for all the lessons learned, no one should be fooled that this go-round will be flawless.
But you can see the wiser responses this time: for instance, the BBC reports that the state of Texas “has urged the US federal government to put 10,000 troops on standby for search and rescue work as Hurricane Rita approaches.”
And President Bush? He has already slated a trip to the area — but don’t expect him to do a flyover with his photo being snapped as he gazes haplessly out of the window, like during his first flyover of Hurricane Katrina’s path. The White House, too, is trying to avoid costly mistakes this time — and that includes political mistakes.
Meanwhile, local weblogs continue to tell parts of the story:
—Wannabeanglican (Corpus Christi):
Last night, we had a small Evening Prayer service at my parish. I was the lector, and it was nice to read the lessons for St. Matthew’s Day as they were very upbeat during a trying time.
The rector played a rarely used piano while the associate rector led the service. We all sat near the front which is very unlike us, which is good since everything was unamplified.
And the rector’s cell phone when off as I read the second lesson! I couldn’t help but look over at him and smile as I kept reading.
We prayed the Litany as we have during morning and evening prayer since Katrina.
Then those who showed up for the service worked together to protect some things from leaks, such as the pew books, the frontals and altarware, etc. The few kids there chipped in and helped. We all did.
I was glad I went.
When I got home, I put up a few more hurricane shutters to save time in case I decided to evacuate the next day. But before I went to bed, I found out the forecast path of Katrina was nudged to the North.
This morning, I saw the forecast path was pushed further north and that we were close to safe. Then, after personal morning prayer, I went out to catch some waves, of course. And they were impressive.
The city later lifted the mandatory evacuation, but I wasn’t allowed to go back out to the beach this afternoon, which is understandable.
—By the Bayou (Houston):
Yesterday I got the house together (whatever that means) and headed up to MKW’s for the duration.
And I was surprised how hard that was. I was pretty calm and collected until I started thinking things like, “Okay, what do I need to bring for the cat?” and “Let me tuck a couple of things with sentimental value in my bag – which should I bring?” and that sort of stuff – and thinking about the fact that my house and my things might be damaged in the next few days.
Mind you, I don’t even own the house, I have insurance, I’m not in a flood-prone area. Compared to the stress and trauma the many people who live a little south of me are facing, I am in great shape. MWK came over to help me finish up, and more importantly, to keep me sane, for which he was invaluable. And in the last few minutes before leaving, I really thought I was going to lose it.
So now I think of the people leaving the homes that they’ve invested their money and their hearts into, who are in far more dangerous spots than me, and I think I appreciate a little bit more what they are going through, and what folks from Louisiana and the Katrina-affected areas must have felt like when evacuating. Just a little, I don’t mean to try to compare the two events in scope or impact. As I said, I feel pretty lucky. But it was so much more wrenching than I had expected.
Got up early this morning to get groceries and gas because yesterday afternoon was the Fall of Saigon writ large. Multiple gas stations with no gas, but finally found one in my neighborhood that only had regular left. My car requires super, but what the heck – I want to go into this thing with a full tank, not a quarter tank. Dropped my wife off to buy groceries first. My theory? Wal-Mart has the best logistics in the world, so they should be restocked overnight and good to go. Big-time wrong. The local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market (groceries only) was totally shut down, no plans to reopen until Sunday. Please take into account the weather today: sunny, no clouds at all, all-time highs of around 100 degrees. Rain doesn’t start until tomorrow and no landfall until Sat morning. I was very disappointed in Wal-Mart. Bad Wal-Mart! I think they deserve flack like Delta got for canceling NOLA flights a day before everyone else. Luckily, we found a purely local grocery running flat out with well-stocked shelves and loaded up. I spent a half-hour or so in line for gas, filled-up, and met up perfectly with my wife as she checked out of the grocery store. Mission accomplished.
Spent the rest of the morning “de-projectiling” around our house. Anything that looks like high-speed winds could pick up and throw at our windows got put in the garage. Took down the basketball goal. Moved a lot of plants from precarious positions. Folded and stored the patio furniture. Sweaty but relatively painless process.
Decided to stay totally local today. The Houston freeways are gridlocked, which has been all over the news. Were all night long too, as far as I can tell.
Hurricane preps are in full gear in the Linehan house. I am not watching too much of the news (and therefore not blogging) because it’s so overwhelming. I have decided instead to clean the house, do laundry and dream up things for my husband to do. (Wolfgang Puck’s is closed today.)
I also want to add how lucky we all are to have Mayor White and Judge Eckels in charge. Yeah, we have some chaos and problems, but a huge number of people are evacuating and under the circumstances, it’s probably going as well as can be expected.
Thanks also to the many other officials, including Governor Perry, who are working tirelessly to handle an extremely difficult situation.
Now the attention focuses on the parts of South Louisiana Katrina didn’t get, or at least not as hard — that area from about Houma and Lafayette westward to Morgan City, Cameron and Lake Charles. Best of luck to our friends and clients in that part of the world.
Fortunately, this area is going to be a lot more forgiving in high water than a big urban area like New Orleans, given much of the area is akin to a large sponge. And, given the folks I know down in the bayous, they’ll show themselves to be a self-sufficient group. Lord knows there won’t be any shortage of flat-bottomed boats to get around to find anyone who needs finding. And no shortage of humor either.
Bon soir, y’all.
UPDATE: The best running hurricane news round up (constantly updated) is done by Michelle Malkin here.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.