Entangled Evacuation

The Baytown Sun
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Entangled Evacuation

By David Bloom

Baytown Sun

Published April 20, 2006

Counties and cities spanning the Texas Gulf Coast have defied an executive order from Gov. Rick Perry to empower one person to make evacuation decisions during hurricanes. Instead, the officials from a 13-county region surrounding Houston — including the mayor of Baytown and Chambers County judge — opted for a committee of 15 to make decisions like how to stagger evacuations and when to enable contraflow on clogged highways.

Of course, mayors and county judges already have the authority given by the Legislature to call for mandatory evacuations. They say appointing one commander is impractical and leads to uninformed decisions. And with a committee, each jurisdiction is represented we suppose, leaving less chance for favoritism and, most assuredly, politics.

Forming the committee would begin immediately with each county judge appointing one member, with the other two decided by the mayors of Houston and Galveston.

But this tempest in a teapot over commander or committee ignores the real issue: the gross negligence of certain elected officials who had no plan or clue about a mass evacuation, making it a greater danger than the storm itself.

The fundamental problem was the lack of a coordinated plan to deal with the massive evacuation. Since then, for example, has the state of Texas developed contra-flow plans along major evacuation? And what about supplying gas, comfort and medical stations along the routes?

We also need a statewide database of people with special needs; the enforcement that all nursing homes and health care facilities have an evacuation plan; and a requirement for school districts to make buses and buildings available to evacuees.

Public awareness campaigns also should be launched informing Texans of the importance of keeping vehicles properly fueled during hurricane season and plans in place to care for pets during emergencies.

Working on it, we are told.

Certainly, centralized control over evacuations would be an improvement, assisting with problems related to evacuation traffic management and special needs assistance.

Ultimately, it matters little who calls the evacuation. The decision to leave town ahead of a hurricane remains solely a personal or family decision.

What is important is that the state must be better prepared for the mass exodus of millions along the Texas Gulf coast.

Rita taught us painful lessons about the woeful inadequacy of our plans in the face of such catastrophe.

Clearly much work remains ahead of the start of the 2006 hurricane season, now only 41 days away.

Today’s editorial was written by David Bloom, managing editor of The Baytown Sun, on behalf of the newspaper’s editorial board.
Copyright © 2006 The Baytown Sun

James Green
jimgreen@bdgreen.com