Prairiewife rescue mission successful
I did no plan on being part of the story about Houston evacuation traffic. Twenty-four hours after Virginia left her office I finally got her home. Earlier reports that Police and state officials were providing gas for those who run out are unsubstantiated. A later report said that soldiers from Fort hood would be providing gas to those stuck on the roadside. I saw no vidence of that either. The fuel situation in the Houston area is critical. The only stations that appeared to be selling gas were some Exxons. Most stations like most resturants and convience stores were closed. There was no place to buy a bottle of water.
Traffic was both worse and better than earlier reports. Those who had the misfortune to take "alternate routes, were in some cases in worse parking lots than the main evacuation routes. Hwy 290 while slow did move from 0 to 15 MPH for the most part. Living in the country now, my pickup has a five speed trasmission. My left foot was getting numb from all the stop and stop driving. I did make it into third gear once around Prairie View (no relation to pundit with the same name).
I actually got into fourth gear after several cars turned off on Hwy 6 heading toward Bryan-College Station. It was shortlived, as it was back to 10 or less MPH all the way to Chappel Hill where I turned onto 1155 to go to Washington. Even that road that mainly goes to a state park had more cars than usual.
Both going and coming I saw several thousand cars huddled around gas stations with no gas. There were also thousands of cars parked on the side of 290. It is hard to say haow many of these cars were out of gas or whether they were taking advantage of Motel Backseat. I saw several people sleeping on the ground.
The Texas Department of Transportation never switched the inbound lanes to outbound traffic on 290. The state reason was that they wanted to be able to bring in gas from the west. However, most of the production facilities are too the east of Houston along the Ship Channel. I certainly never saw a tanker truck using the inbound lanes and there was clearly scant evidence that any was being delivered.
By forcing outbound traffic on 290 into a narrow straw causing slow to zero MPH driving, they actually substantially increased gas consumption. My mileage bringing the Prairiewife hom was less than half what it normally is. She had a similar experience getting to the point where she ran out of gas.
Update: A story in the Houston Chronicle has this great lead:
I did no plan on being part of the story about Houston evacuation traffic. Twenty-four hours after Virginia left her office I finally got her home. Earlier reports that Police and state officials were providing gas for those who run out are unsubstantiated. A later report said that soldiers from Fort hood would be providing gas to those stuck on the roadside. I saw no vidence of that either. The fuel situation in the Houston area is critical. The only stations that appeared to be selling gas were some Exxons. Most stations like most resturants and convience stores were closed. There was no place to buy a bottle of water.
Traffic was both worse and better than earlier reports. Those who had the misfortune to take "alternate routes, were in some cases in worse parking lots than the main evacuation routes. Hwy 290 while slow did move from 0 to 15 MPH for the most part. Living in the country now, my pickup has a five speed trasmission. My left foot was getting numb from all the stop and stop driving. I did make it into third gear once around Prairie View (no relation to pundit with the same name).
I actually got into fourth gear after several cars turned off on Hwy 6 heading toward Bryan-College Station. It was shortlived, as it was back to 10 or less MPH all the way to Chappel Hill where I turned onto 1155 to go to Washington. Even that road that mainly goes to a state park had more cars than usual.
Both going and coming I saw several thousand cars huddled around gas stations with no gas. There were also thousands of cars parked on the side of 290. It is hard to say haow many of these cars were out of gas or whether they were taking advantage of Motel Backseat. I saw several people sleeping on the ground.
The Texas Department of Transportation never switched the inbound lanes to outbound traffic on 290. The state reason was that they wanted to be able to bring in gas from the west. However, most of the production facilities are too the east of Houston along the Ship Channel. I certainly never saw a tanker truck using the inbound lanes and there was clearly scant evidence that any was being delivered.
By forcing outbound traffic on 290 into a narrow straw causing slow to zero MPH driving, they actually substantially increased gas consumption. My mileage bringing the Prairiewife hom was less than half what it normally is. She had a similar experience getting to the point where she ran out of gas.
Update: A story in the Houston Chronicle has this great lead:
Hurricane Rita lumbered toward Texas on Thursday at a sluggish 9 mph. Thousands of Houston-area residents fleeing its approach envied its speed.
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