2011 Harris County Evacuation Zones And Routes
Me: “Hey, it’s the first day of hurricane season.”
D: “Oh, boy.”
Jeffrey may not evacuate New Orleans, but I will Houston. It’s never the hurricane itself that I worry about, but the aftermath, which involves the human inability to plan ahead. We’re not staying here for two weeks of no power (experienced by many Houstonians after Ike) while roaches and other critters of the bayou try to get into my house for the relative cool (experienced by many Houstonians after every drizzle). And when I heard my next-door neighbor had a tree fall on her house and her shed mysteriously catch fire after the last hurricane … I’m out.
But wait. After the most shameful (non-)evacuation ahead of 2005’s Hurricane Rita, the City of Houston released a new evacuation plan in 2007.
With less than two weeks until hurricane season, Harris County released a new evacuation plan based on ZIP codes [this PDF takes forever and a day to load at the HCOEM website] to get families to safety if a storm strikes.
… ZIP codes will be used to identify the houses in the three storm surge areas. Up to 300,000 people live in the most vulnerable neighborhoods. He said people who live on higher ground should be prepared to shelter-in-place.
Um no. Even though we live approximately 110 feet above sea level and far, far away from any actual surge zone, just no.
Peep this: The set of 2011 hurricane names are the same as 2005, except for the hurricanes that happened. Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma have been replaced with Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney. I’ll bet you Katia is a weenie.
“I’ll bet you Katia is a weenie.”
No point in being cheerful this early in the season; maybe it’s meant to be Katrina without a single R.N.
It’s always the ones you don’t expect. So, we’ll be looking out for Katia, when it’s Lee or Maria that nails us.