Safe in San Antonio
Sep. 23rd, 2005 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amalthiaOMG The traffic was GODAWFUL yesterday. I'm so glad I have this thing about saving water bottles and freezing them, my husband and I went through 8 bottles of water (that started out as ice) and 13 hours in the car just to get from Houston to San Antonio. It was a mess but for the most part people obeyed the traffic laws and it went fine. I saw one guy throwing his dead dog on the other side of the train tracks. :(
The lines to get gas were horrendous, another reason to be very grateful that Tom (my husband) got up early yesterday morning and found gas before it all ran out. We couldn't use the AC because we could not afford to run out of gas and I'm very glad we got a new car that is rather fuel efficient. But still the car felt like it was 120 degrees, we ran out of water 140 miles into the trip (thankfully it was nighttime by then and we were moving along) But we still had ice cubes in the ice chest so it wasn't as dire as it could have been.
Anyway, the only thing I think we coulid have done that might have been smarter was instead of throwing away the empty bottle of apple juice when we were at the apartment we should have filled it up with water. As it was I felt like we were rationing our water during the trip, and I worried a lot that we'd run out and I really didn't want to drink ice cubes if we didn't have to.
I think next time a hurricane comes to Houston the government better have some sort of plan of action on how to evacuate people because they did a piss poor job of it this time. Though to be fair and honest I don't think any city is equipped to evacuate over 3 million people by car. (I think houston has one passenger train station but no one on the radio said anything about taking a train out of town, not that there are train stations in most towns in the south anyway)
at around 8pm or 9pm on the radio they were telling people NOT to leave their homes. really, I can see why, it's much safer to be in a house during a hurricane than a car. My husband is from Belgium and he thinks they should have evacuated in stages and have the police close down every other road to all traffic except for the zones where people are evacuating first, then open the next zone...and so on...that away the people who really need to evacuate can, while the people who are in safer areas...can survive if they still don't get the chance to evacuate. I think his idea has some merits, not sure how it would work out but after this fiasco, alternatives sound really good. Of course, after all this trouble the hurricane may not even hit Texas.
Anyway the point of this message is that I got to San Antonio safely but it was tough going and I feel for the people that had small kids and didn't bring enough water because they didn't realize siting in a car in 95 F would turn the car into a oven. Tom and I were lucky we took highway Alt90, which parallel's I-10 to the south.
The lines to get gas were horrendous, another reason to be very grateful that Tom (my husband) got up early yesterday morning and found gas before it all ran out. We couldn't use the AC because we could not afford to run out of gas and I'm very glad we got a new car that is rather fuel efficient. But still the car felt like it was 120 degrees, we ran out of water 140 miles into the trip (thankfully it was nighttime by then and we were moving along) But we still had ice cubes in the ice chest so it wasn't as dire as it could have been.
Anyway, the only thing I think we coulid have done that might have been smarter was instead of throwing away the empty bottle of apple juice when we were at the apartment we should have filled it up with water. As it was I felt like we were rationing our water during the trip, and I worried a lot that we'd run out and I really didn't want to drink ice cubes if we didn't have to.
I think next time a hurricane comes to Houston the government better have some sort of plan of action on how to evacuate people because they did a piss poor job of it this time. Though to be fair and honest I don't think any city is equipped to evacuate over 3 million people by car. (I think houston has one passenger train station but no one on the radio said anything about taking a train out of town, not that there are train stations in most towns in the south anyway)
at around 8pm or 9pm on the radio they were telling people NOT to leave their homes. really, I can see why, it's much safer to be in a house during a hurricane than a car. My husband is from Belgium and he thinks they should have evacuated in stages and have the police close down every other road to all traffic except for the zones where people are evacuating first, then open the next zone...and so on...that away the people who really need to evacuate can, while the people who are in safer areas...can survive if they still don't get the chance to evacuate. I think his idea has some merits, not sure how it would work out but after this fiasco, alternatives sound really good. Of course, after all this trouble the hurricane may not even hit Texas.
Anyway the point of this message is that I got to San Antonio safely but it was tough going and I feel for the people that had small kids and didn't bring enough water because they didn't realize siting in a car in 95 F would turn the car into a oven. Tom and I were lucky we took highway Alt90, which parallel's I-10 to the south.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 04:44 pm (UTC)trying not to feel guilty about being relieved the hurricane hit further east of where I live.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-24 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-25 01:17 am (UTC)frozen water bottles are great!!!! glad you thought of that!!