Hurricane Evacuation Strategy Planning (Houston, Allen: to buy, dangerous, vacation)

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by crone

Sometimes the storm will bring tornadoes.

Especially bad for trailer homes and witches.

[Sollaces]

Hurricanes bring power outages. What was it after Ike, some areas were without power for weeks? And it wasn't just the down trees hitting the power lines.


What we do is keep the gas cans full. People forget that when the power is out, gas stations can't pump.
I freeze gallon jugs of ice and can easily move that to the fridge.
Pull items from the fridge and put in an ice chest. If you can't find ice to buy, go to the dollar store and stock up on icee pops.
I also keep gallon jugs of water in a closet and rotate those out year round.

[Dopo]

This might sound crazy, but I've heard people saying "use the tub in your house to store water"
I'm fine with doing that, just gotta make sure to clean it anytime a hurricane is in the way

[Sollaces]

You use the tub water to flush the toilet. I prefer to stock up on gallon water jugs and just set them out in a closet somewhere. We didn't evacuate during Ike but did experience a power outage and believe me, that's really tough when it's summer in this climate. The house can get to 90 degrees easily. Your cell phone can't be recharged and you can't find the local FEMA water / food station because you can't access the news.


On top of that a lot of people from the coast are flooding the roads, even after the storm. They have no where to go, may be out of gas, no food and no water.


My son worked for Exxon off of 99 when Hurrican Rita evacuations were going on. He said the cars were so tight around the parking lot and the tankers were expected to come and refill the station. Well, the tanker came but couldn't get in so he left. Gas shortages are a BIG thing during evacuations. And we provided one family with a few lawn chairs. They were stranded and nothing to sit on and the car was too hot. Well, after being in the car for all odd hours 'fleeing' I wouldn't want to be stuck in one, either!


It's really hard because if you're evacuating and have no where to go, you have to find a place to shelter in place. Then the storm may move and you'll still be in harms way. But what if you run out of gas? Are stuck on the freeway behind many cars that ran out of gas?


The big thing is be prepared. Keep your trees trimmed. Keep your yard picked up so nothing is blowing and damaging your property. Keep your important papers in one spot and easy to grab if you need to leave. Better yet keep copies of what's most important to you in another location - Safe deposit box, family, or elsewhere.

[Sollaces]

I forgot to add . .. . After Hurricane Ike those power outages meant the lights, the street lights were out. So every single intersection was a 4 way stop. Think of that with our traffic here in the Houston area. A normal 20 minute drive became an hour. I think the toll roads cancelled their fees during that time. But off ramps were backed up 50 cars and everywhere you went was slow.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by motorcycledoppelganger

Never having lived through a hurricane, I'm not in on the Katy/evacuation joke. Do they just not come that far inland? How far do they come? (I live SE of Rosenberg)

Keep in mind the houses in Cinco Ranch and upper middle-class masterplanned communities are built to withstand a category 3 storm. The houses in the popup subdivisions around Houston are usually built to withstand category 2.

The TV weather reports said (before landfall) that Rita will be a Category 3-4 storm (might as well make it Category 5 due to the Katrina hysteria) once it makes landfall in Galveston. A KB Home in a popup neighborhood will surely collapse!

After learning the horrible traffic lesson, the TV weather reports dared not to exaggerate too much during Ike and urged everyone to stay put.

[lipbalm]

Again. Leave at least 3 days before (4 is preferable ) or at the last possible minute. Other wise it's a traffic nightmare to get out of dodge.

[locotl]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

Keep in mind the houses in Cinco Ranch and upper middle-class masterplanned communities are built to withstand a category 3 storm. The houses in the popup subdivisions around Houston are usually built to withstand category 2.

The TV weather reports said (before landfall) that Rita will be a Category 3-4 storm (might as well make it Category 5 due to the Katrina hysteria) once it makes landfall in Galveston. A KB Home in a popup neighborhood will surely collapse!

After learning the horrible traffic lesson, the TV weather reports dared not to exaggerate too much during Ike and urged everyone to stay put.

Yeah.... I know my house is rated to withstand a Cat3 also but I highly doubt I'll stay if a Cat3 approaches. I used to live in South Florida and the building codes over there are much more strict especially after Andrew (Cat4). I have more faith in a cement and brick house than a wooded one...

Also take into consideration that Pearland/Katy/ Sugarland are much more inland than any other big Florida city (except Orlando approx 45 miles from sea), and the damage from them should be less.

[bohunak]

I remember people going crazy with Rita, everyone tried to escape, nightmare. We stayed in. No problem. With Ike we lost power for almost 2 weeks, or so. Kids had fun, no school:-) We had generator, no problem. That time we lived in Spring. Friend from Kingwood had fun hurricane neighborhood party before Ike, and slept thru it.:-) We went to sleep to our big walk in closet in case of tornadoes.
People have to learn how to prepare and not to end up without supplies and gas.

[Sollaces]

Pictures from Ike. I remember the news and helicopters flying over the Houston Ship Channel and showing the destruction.


Hurricane Ike hit the Houston and Galveston areas eight years ago this week - Houston Chronicle