The Evacuation - 'It Was Like the End of the World,' One Texan Says

[Pirate Smile]

The Evacuation
'It Was Like the End of the World,' One Texan Says

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 24, 2005; Page A01

HOUSTON, Sept. 23 -- With Rita closing in, the family of Albert Ruben Sr. drove here this morning to a high school basketball auditorium turned hurricane shelter of last resort -- after taking the most maddening journey of their lives.

-snip-

In Galveston, Tex., Dennis Creasy waits for Rita at a bar with a relative's dog, Sweet Pea. "I got nowhere to go and no one to go to," he said. (Photos By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)


Seventeen hours later, they had traveled just 60 miles and were stuck in traffic. They had driven most of that time -- in daytime temperatures of about 100 degrees -- without air conditioning to save fuel. All public services along the evacuation route -- for gasoline, food, water, bathrooms -- were closed.

Ruben, 50, a juvenile-detention officer in Galveston County, said he saw three ambulances carry away elderly people who had collapsed in the heat of their unmoving cars. His grandchildren, 4 and 7, had put on baby diapers to avoid soiling the car.

-snip-
"It was like the end of the world," Ruben said. "You know what it makes you want to do? It makes you want to go home and die. The government done us wrong."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/23/AR2005092302186.html

[Saintgermane]

1. link?

n/t

[Pirate Smile]

4. It is there now. More about the anger.

"On his bleacher seat in the auditorium, Ruben, the juvenile-detention officer whose exodus from the Texas Gulf Coast had utterly failed, was finding it difficult to get over his anger. He was furious with the city, state and federal governments over their failure to organize an evacuation that would have allowed him and his family to actually evacuate.

"We are supposed to be the richest country in the world," he said. "But what I have seen from the government so far is just pitiful."

[Erika]

2. But Faux/Bushco said there were only "minor" problems

And the GOP governor agreed.

[Pirate Smile]

10. Oh, they all have their BS talking points out today.

The reporters screwed up today by doing all their stories from the empty cities/towns on the coast.

The real story was further inland with the people trying to evacuate. The story of the actual storm didn't really start until tonight.

[hatrack]

15. At this point, what the reporters say and do is increasingly immaterial

There are now a couple of million people in four states who have seen first hand just how screwed up the response at all levels of government has been.

They will know better than anyone else that what the bubbly talking heads say on the tee-vee is crap, and that the assurances of politicians are meaningless and that President Chimp's Dress-Up Playtime photo-ops are cynical, calculated bullshit. These people are pissed-off, many are homeless or jobless, and they are going to talk about this and they are going to remember this.

The video and radio wallpaper which has served for the past four years to cover up for the boatload of clowns which is this "administration" is peeling off the walls in strips and chunks, unable to restrain the pressure of lies and the moisture of corruption as the walls beneath it crack and bend.

We have reached critical mass.

[MissWaverly]

18. best description that I have seen

the tree house is collapsing and I can't believe people still get
bogged down in procedural issues, the truth is we are in free fall,
we should be looking for a parachute not a debate on protocol.

[tocqueville]

3. more is coming I think

seen several reports on KPRC that confirms the pattern above

[roguevalley]

5. appalling sad. like a drunk, I think America is bottoming out.

[barb162]

8. I think you're right. Also, these problems didn't seem so

apparent before. The last 2 years there have been a lot of hurricanes

[Der Blaue Engel]

6. "I got nowhere to go and no one to go to"

The caption on that pic is heartbreaking. :cry:

In Galveston, Tex., Dennis Creasy waits for Rita at a bar with a relative's dog, Sweet Pea. "I got nowhere to go and no one to go to," he said.

Anyone who can't understand why someone would "choose" to stay just has no heart. That's all I can conclude.

[mirandapriestly]

7. I know, that poor man, I wish I could help him

These disasters are really bringing out the sadness of some people's lives.

[chalky]

9. Kicked, nommed, and bookmarked.

n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. God Bless America! Every man for himself! Want an everyday taste of this?

Go to a major league baseball game on crutches and feel what it is like to get jostled and elbowed around by the mob of average sweaty hostile "what's in it for me" americans.

[chalky]

12. Flipping from MSNBC to CNN and back just now--

Not a one of the idiot reporters are on the story of the NEW evacuees.
All are standing in the middle of deserted cities reporting on the flying Dairy Queen sign and the condo owner who fretted over her newly planted palms being damaged (I shit you not).

It's very jarring to hear them--every damn one I've seen so far--take a break from their weather reporting make these carefully fawning speeches about how well the cities were evacuated and how all vehicles were utilized in the evacuation.

[KoKo]

17. Agree same pictures same story, same helicopter flying over untouched

areas of Galveston. Reports from "officials" saying all is well "but we haven't had a chance to check out some of the worst hit areas and btw they were all in LA." :eyes:

Then they talked about how Huston's emergency equipment was sent onto a huge military ship so it would be safe. They said the "Iwo Jima" was out there with all the rescue personnel and medical supplies, yadda, yadda, yadda.

And, what happened in NO's and LA/MISS. There was NO huge military SHIP to store the "emergency vehicles" because we were told big ships couldn't come into the gulf with a hurricane there.

So many lies...but I think if we can see the lies in the coverage then the rest of American will wake up and see it too.

[yowzayowzayowza]

13. Wide early evacuation of low-lying areas...

and those who are not ambulatory makes sense. The problem occurs when utilizing mass evacuations to avoid inland damage like Hurricane Andrew. The "over-evacuation" should be avoided by delaying the inland evacuation until the path probability is very high (within the last 24 hours) and distance required to preserve life is much smaller.

In any event, this government has failed itz obligation to insure the efficacy of the mandatory evacuation.

[tblue37]

14. Maybe Castro could send us some evacuation

experts, since Cuba doesn't seem to have any trouble at all getting its people, pets, and livestock out of the path of these killer storms.

[arikara]

16. The airports were bad too

Someone was saying on Randi Rhodes yesterday that about 80% of the security checkers didn't show up for work because they were getting their own families out of town. Consequently the lines were all tied up because the ones that were there followed the rules and kept checking Granny's shoes etc for bombs. Planes were taking off on time but only a quarter full.

I guess it works "real good" in Chimpy's world.