With massive Hurricane Rita bearing down on Texas and the Gulf Coast, hundreds of thousands of residents from coastal towns all the way up to Houston have boarded up their homes and fled.
Consider it among the many lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina. As Texas Gov. Rick Perry put it: “Homes and businesses can be rebuilt. Lives cannot.”
Mercifully gone are the days when part of a local government’s emergency planning consisted of hoping a storm would drift away to become someone else’s problem. Early evacuations were ordered for 1.1 million Texans and those still left in New Orleans – even as the storm shifts directions.
Thinning out the nation’s fourth-largest city has been no easy task with miles of clogged highways and thousands of frustrated drivers trying to get out of Houston, but people were given ample time. “Don’t wait,” Houston Mayor Bill White said. “The time for warnings is over.”
Rita is expected to hit land late tonight or early Saturday. Wind and rain will drench a wide swath of the Gulf Coast.
From small county sheriff’s offices to the feds, governments are mobilizing and responding before Rita makes landfall.
Officials are taking care not to repeat any of the mistakes from Katrina. So far, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has 45 truckloads of water and ice and 25 truckloads of Meals Ready to Eat stationed in San Antonio. And more than 400 medical workers and 14 urban search-and-rescue teams are on standby in Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth. The Pentagon is providing 26 helicopters to carry people and supplies, along with temporary hospital beds and facilities to serve at least a half-million meals a day. Once the storm hits land, military aircraft will be dispatched to survey the damage.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has mobilized buses this time to evacuate people without transportation, and she asked the federal government to provide an extra 15,000 troops to aid anticipated relief efforts. She was criticized after Katrina for waiting too long to ask for troops.
And President Bush, who was on vacation when Katrina hit, has issued emergency declarations for Texas and Louisiana, freeing up federal money and putting FEMA in charge of the response. He also is scheduled to fly to Texas today for a first-hand look at preparations and then on to Colorado to visit U.S. Northern Command headquarters. A spokesman says his Colorado Springs visit will “give him a better grasp of federal preparations for the storm.”
Only time, and the path of the hurricane, will tell if the extra precautions and plans make a difference.
But better safe than sorry.
