[thecodefoundry]

Gov. Abbott contradicted local officials with his off-the-cuff suggestion people in Houston should flee. Metro Houston is 6.5M+ people. Where would they evac to? San Antonio and Austin were already swamped with people from Victoria, Corpus Christi and further south evacuating there under mandatory evac notifications. I45 to Dallas in no feasible way could handle 6.5M people fleeing. I was here when hurricane Rita came through and everyone evac'd. More people died on highways evacuating days before the hurricane made landfall than those died because of the hurricane.

Majority of people in metro Houston have power and while the flooding is catastrophic (exceeding 500 and 1000yr flood levels), the fatalities have been less than a handful (at the moment). Houstonians and Texans are coming to each other's aid, helping with rescues, etc. Even the Cajun Navy is coming in to help.

Edited: I completely agree with your sentiment about not waiting for the govt. Resources are already strained and even if they were willing, many roads/highways are completely impassable at the moment.

[Digory]

I understand that resources are limited. In my city, you'd just evacuate certain areas, rather than the whole metro area, but I'll assume Houston made its decision in good faith based on data. Hopefully, the death toll stays low.

If I were a citizen, though, I would have liked to know last week or month that Houston is too big to evacuate. No matter how bad it gets, that call won't come, apparently. We're used to evac orders in dangerous storms, and calibrate our plans accordingly. I want a government that admits "its on you," rather than knowing the government will choose to misinform me when it hits the fan. I am seeing people with a day or two of medicine, not a week or month, etc. A warning that no warning will come might have made a difference there.

[stephenhuey]

I was here in town for both Rita (the storm that "didn't happen" that put 3 million people on the road at once) and also Ike. Lots of rescues have been needed but that number is tiny compared to the population of Houston. Your suggestion to evacuate certain areas doesn't work here--there'd be far too many areas. Houstonians are generally knowledgable about staying safe in a storm such as this, and evacuations have often led to avoidable deaths and other problems in the past. I've been sitting in the middle of the city for days and I'm with the local officials on this one, not the governor.

[honestoHeminway]

Ressources are limited because everyone voted for tax reductions. Why not admit to cutting ones life-boat?

[banned1]

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