Diaspora: deja vu all over again.
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I owe credit for most of the title to an American refugee in h(er|is) blog called My Katrina.
And now s/he has to leave Houston due to Rita – deja vu all over again.
But s/he is relatively lucky. The 1500 evacuees who were left at the
Reliant Stadium [the new bigger and better stadium next to the
Astrodome] were supposed to be evacuated again. That’s a second stage
of the diaspora.
The Bataan had enough water for the people at Charity, the Superdome and
the Convention Center. None of them had to die of thirst. It was
genocide by inaction. And it was foretold.
I see Captain Nora was relieved of command. Did they blame her
for waiting for orders? A real man would have waited for orders? What
would the men say about her if she had disobeyed orders? Bleeding
heart? Unmilitary?
My brother lives in Houston. He is evacuating. He planned on leaving at
3:00 AM CDT. He didn’t get on the road until 3:45 AM. I’m looking
at the Transtar traffic map
and passing the info on via cell phone. The major evacuation routes to
the North and West are jammed. Only I-10 east going to Louisiana is
clear and even now at 4:33 AM, it is starting to get traffic. Refugee will
have clear sailing to Baton Rouge. But Louisiana is also a disaster zone.
Rita may turn to the east. Cyclone storms often do in the Northern
Temperate Zone. The authorities may not let him in. Good luck refugee.
Bill decided to stay off the major routes. He confirmed that Westheimer is clear. Transtar said it was.
Bill just called again. He encountered heavy traffic on Westhiemer and
made a turn. He is lost. I have Yahoo maps in another tab. He’s on
Westheimer Parkway in George Bush Park. He is now off the edge of the
Transtar map. Westheimer Parkway continues west to 99 he will
have to go north or south. North to 1-10 which is probably jammed.
Bill’s friend in Dallas is watching the news on TV I-10 is a
nightmare. He’s going south to 1093.
Call. 1093 is jammed. I have no traffic information for him anymore
– only geographic data. “If I turn around, how far is it to I-10?
Except I’ll have trouble turning around. Never mind. I guess it’s time
to grin and bear it. I guess I’m going to San Antonio. Have a
long breakfast, I’m not going anywhere for a while.” The goal is a
friends place in Dallas to the North. Bill’s forced into a detour.
Refugee is going to Baton Rouge because s/he could find no other place
to go.
It took four phone calls to navigate through Eagle Lake and get on 102
to Columbus. Bill says most of the other drivers are on cell phones
there are at least 5 million people on the move. There must be 2
million calls per hour coming from that part of the cellnet.
I remember Amy Sweeney. She was so afraid. And so brave. The
usual channels were in control of the terrorists. She called
reservations on her cell phone. Amazing common sense in the face of
terrible fear.. She could only believe she was risking her life.
She could not know she was already doomed. Amazingly
uncommon sense. [Betty Ong in another post.]
It was a long night for Bill. I was able to catch naps between
phone
calls. Bill is in Austin to the west of Houston. 9 hours on the road to
go 162 miles.- an average of 18 mph. Normal time is 3.5 hours. Bill’s
friend is in Dallas. Rita has turned
east. Will Dallas be in danger? It looks like a close call. NWS thinks.
they will experience high winds, but only gusts will reach hurricane
speeds. Should Bill stay in Austin and invite his friend to join him?
NWS thinks there is a 5% probability of steady winds reaching hurricane
speeds. Sounds to me like Austin is a little worse than Dallas. Bill
doesn’t understand this based on the the projected track. But the
models undoubtedly include the weakening of the storm as it moves over
land. Dallas is to the north.
But the eastward shift of the track is bad for refugee. Good luck refugee.
I cannot find the NOLA’s from the Reliant/Astrodome. Can you blogbuds help me?
