Hurricane Evacuation Strategy Planning (Houston, Dallas: house, neighborhood, live)

[Stanton1433]

I am not a long time Houston resident and was with my family doing pre planning hurricane evacuations if we had to deal with a hurricane evacuation. I heard during hurricane Rita, it was said to have been an ordeal. Being near the South Eastern Side of the metro, I was looking at different strategies to making an evacuation much smoother. I laid out 2 options. For those who have survived Rita would these be viable alternatives.


1. Avoid expressways out of town and take ONLY neighborhood roads out of Houston. Even residential streets leading to western side of the metro would take much faster than the roads going north which is the most popular direction out of town.




2. Another option is to walk or bike out of Houston. I am an avid biker and have biked 100 or so miles on a consistent basis. I would first protect my belongings and secure my house. I would take money and take a bottle for water and simply bike out of town. It would take a few hours but if I biked slow and easy, and take sidewalks where people would not be.

[kickingprop]

Another option for you.

3) Considering there is almost always sufficient notice of hurricanes making landfall, plan to leave a few days in advance of the storms arrival. This is ESPECIALLY prudent if you live on the SE side which is going to experience the most traffic issues if you try and leave right when everyone else is.

[hendersj31]

Honestly option 1 is not a good idea. You need to replace that with:

1.) Evacuate early if you plan to do so


Do you really want to be stranded in some random (and potentially bad) neighborhood if things get hectic? There is usually plenty of advance notice if a hurricane is expected to make landfall. Now, I realize that the storms can shift as they approach the coast but it really wouldn't be wise to wait that long if you plan to leave. It is easier to just come back if the storm shifts direction.

[elnina]

Just grab a pamphlet from HEB. They put a great guide together.
https://www.heb.com/static/pdfs/SA-H...-Guide-Eng.pdf <<< web version
or check this pdf:
http://www.houstonoem.org/external/c...16-English.pdf
Evacuation maps:
http://togetheragainsttheweather.org...outemaps.shtml
http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot...on/houston.pdf
Other helpful links:
http://www.stevequayle.com/index.php?s=271
https://goo.gl/HPm4aw

[aero100]

Don't let what happened during Rita impact your planning too much - Rita was an anomaly due to the proximity of the Katrina event and the city's unpreparedness for a large volume of people evacuating who frankly should not have left since they were outside of evacuation zones.

Many lessons were learned and Ike was far more orderly. Use Elnina's resources, keep your car full of gas, have cash on hand, and have your "go kit" ready so you can leave easily when it becomes necessary. If you follow the evacuation instructions and routes you will be fine (and leaving early is a great idea).

Another option is crashing with a friend in Houston proper. Most of the city (especially the west side) is not in an evacuation zone and residents are encouraged to stay put to make room for those that must leave. It's really easy to get out of town after the storm exits the area if you want to escape the likely widespread power outages, the roads are wide open.

[westhou]

I don't think we will ever have an evacuation as bad as Rita. I was one of those idiots that evacuated when I didn't need to and regretted it. As a result I stayed during Ike and was fine. I think most people west of Hwy 59 will stay and thus free up the roads for the people east of 59.

[swopoe]

Originally Posted by westhou

I don't think we will ever have an evacuation as bad as Rita. I was one of those idiots that evacuated when I didn't need to and regretted it. As a result I stayed during Ike and was fine. I think most people west of Hwy 59 will stay and thus free up the roads for the people east of 59.

Ditto this. Also, Rita was our first hurricane so we had no clue what to do. With Ike, we only lost power for a day and a half even so we were totally fine staying behind.

[lipbalm]

Originally Posted by swopoe

Ditto this. Also, Rita was our first hurricane so we had no clue what to do. With Ike, we only lost power for a day and a half even so we were totally fine staying behind.

I think a big Problem will be all the newbies that were not here for Ike. That should be like hazing for new residents to see if you can hack it .

[DanielWayne]

Yes - Leave early if at all possible. It's stressful enough, don't add to it.

I left for both Rita and Ike. Night and day difference.

Rita took me about 4 hours I think to get from Galveston County to a relatives house in SW Houston. The side roads were just as jammed as the freeways. It took me and a relative over 24 hours to get to Dallas. I heard stories way worse than mine.

From Galveston Co to Ft Worth, Ike caused me a lot of delays, but it wasn't much worse than everyday traffic in many spots. The strange thing was coming home after the storm, one little town on I45 had no electricity. At all. Consequently every gas station and McDonalds and Jack-in-the-Box was closed. That poses a challenge when you stop for a restroom break in a town with multiple businesses, but nothing open. Oh yeah, that was an exponentially greater challenge during Rita.

[PedroMartinez]

Ok, since there won't be a ton of people reading this, I'll tell you the secret of evacuating.

Fill up your car early, but leave a few hours before the storm.

My wife left for Austin about four hours before Rita and only hit a slight delay in Brenham. She did the same for Ike and it was no different than any other day.