Empty cars lined up on interstate cause they ran out of GAS! WTF?

[Blue_Roses]

What is the purpose to evacuate is you can't get down the highway...:shrug:

You don't tell a city of over a million people to evacuate at one time. :crazy:

[spuddonna]

1. Now, tell me... how hard would this be?

NG goes out as soon as a mandatory evac is ordered with Armored Carriers filled with gas cans, water, and simple car repair kits... They line the interstates dispersed at whatever rate would make sense, a unit every 10 miles? I guess it would depend on the amt of NG you had available... They can provide security, supplies, and call in medical helicopters as needed.

I just pulled this idea out of my ass. Can anyone tell me that people who's job it is to PLAN this stuff never had this idea?! :shrug:

[acmejack]

5. A good portion of the TANG is otherwise occupied at this time!

fwiw, Every national guardsman I know here is deployed to Baghdad.

[spuddonna]

7. Yeah, so basically Operation Rita = Operation Katrina

All forces deployed elsewhere... God bless, and God speed to those left to help...

[Inland]

9. Actually, that's the system the Illinois Toll Road Authority uses.

"minutemen" trucks pull stopped cars off the highway in minutes.

All one would have to do is add some more.

[Frances]

2. I just came from cnn.com

and I didn't see any stories there about the traffic jams. Did I miss them? Or doesn't CNN consider them news?

[onecent]

3. Didn't you hear Hannity say, it was a flawless evacuation...ass

[cornermouse]

4. Lady on NPR said it took her 22 hours to travel what usually takes 3 hours

I guess you'd call that maximum gas for minimum travel.

[ClintonTyree]

6. They started the contra-flow WAY too late.........

then they wouldn't let people in the westbound lanes cross over to the contra-flow lanes when they DID start it! The cops were at every U-turn area blocking people from entering the contra-flow lanes! People were trying to cross the median to get on the outbound lanes on the other side and were getting stuck. Unfuckingbelievable! How did they expect people to get IN the damned lanes? :wtf:
Yeah, this went SOOOO smoothly, Hannity, you asshole!

[hardrainfallin]

8. Did they leave the engines running in the traffic jam

or what? That's the other crazy part of it: OK, so this is America, maybe you have to REMIND people, uh, if you leave your car running in a traffic jam, you will run out of gas, but then TELL THEM. Remind them: don't forget to kill the engine when traffic stops....

[Blue_Roses]

10. some DID!

they were putting their cars in neutral and PUSHING them to save gas.

Yeah, this went so well:crazy:

[sakabatou]

11. Sociopaths...

all of them

[Blue_Roses]

12. Why not evacuate the city in sections?

not only would this have helped the gas situation, but most of all, the traffic. ATM's were out of money. It was a joke.

Texas was patting itself on the back and looking down at the governor of Louisiana, but this was a joke.

Rick Perry is on CNN now saying how "sucessful" the evacuation was...geeze...big hair Perry...still pandering for Bush:eyes:

[hardrainfallin]

13. I am always amazed. we sit here, we are not experts, we

don't know a thing about this shit, and yet even WE can see the most logical way of doing this...(i.e the staggered, section by section evacuation plan)

It does not take an army of engineers to figure out you cannot evacuate a city of several million by saying: OK, everybody, pack up and drive!.

:crazy: :crazy:

[Blue_Roses]

17. I'm beginning to think it's more like

ready, set, GO! :eyes:

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. I thought they grew Gas on tree in Texas.

[Robertwf]

15. Put on the Thinking Caps

Houston--at least the most vulnerable suburbs closest to the Gulf--were supposed to start leaving by zip code--so it's not like they just said, Read, Freddy, Go!
Planners need to get down to the tarmac, though. They blew it on several things: they forgot that some people will ALWAYS leave with less gas than they need--because they are going to fill up somewhere down the line--you know, the filling station down the street has a crowd around it, or I know about a place where I can get it cheaper. Then there are the people with the cars that are put together with spit and chewing gum. You've all seen 'em on a regular day lying fallow by the roadside when you're on the way to work. They forgot about the multi-car families who had to put one driver in each vehicle to drive all of 'em out at once.
They did not set up the contralanes fast enough. Worst, though, was they failed to identify through lanes and help lanes. They also needed to keep a lane available for emergency use--primarily for tanker trucks and tow trucks, as well as buses to haul the stranded out.
Personally, I would be pushing my local emergency people to plan evacuation alternatives and publicize them so people get a little awareness about them before they really need to do anything about them.
The other big message from this evac is that you better keep a stash of cash somewhere--as you may need it when those ATM machines are empty and the banks have been emptied out.

[daleo]

16. It seems like Cuba does this a lot better.

Maybe when the individual solution is not even conceivable (i.e. few people own cars, so everyone can't drive out like a John Wayne wagon train), the collective solutions work better.

[hardrainfallin]

18. china does it better, too. n/t