Live from the Nuke Free Zone

I don’t mean to make this a Texas blog, really. But the home state has been hopping recently. Rita, now a Cat 5, is forecast to have her eye make landfall within spitting distance of my parents’ house in Houston (and reader, she will be spitting).

Now, Galveston is no stranger to evacuations, having been the victim of the Hurricane of 1900, the deadliest natural disaster in United States history so far. This time, evacuation zones stretch into Houston, though stopping southeast of my parents’ house. Galveston, of course, faces more danger than Houston; it will bear the full sea-charged brunt of the storm and geologically stands a chance of literally losing a part of the island to the sea, depending on characteristics of the storm surge (the seawall is 17 feet high; I’ve seen a 50-foot storm surge predicted, although that was a city official so take that as you will). Houston faces mainly flooding, and sits on a well-drained bayou system.

Stories about the evacuations are stressing the early orders and the thoroughness, suggesting that leaders in the region are eager to pre-empt criticisms like those of the Katrina preparations. Troops are already on alert; residents without transportation have been getting buses and those that still need arrangements are being urged to call 311 to get help; water, MREs and teams of rescue and medical workers are on standby. Even the Astrodome’s 11,000 Katrina refugees are being moved further inland, and quickly.

If another month had passed between Katrina and Rita, we might not have seen this level of response. Comparisons between responses to Katrina and Rita should be academically valuable in refining natural disaster response plans for cities — we may not be able to control for every variable, but some information as to what works and what doesn’t will yield itself up under critical analysis.

That will come afterward, of course. Right now it’s time for everyone involved with the Gulf region in Texas to put their money where their mouth is: it’s time to turn all the criticisms of Katrina into positive action. For the most part, it looks like that’s being done.

I remember watching Alicia in ‘83, right about the time I turned 6. My house was fine, though the grand old tree in my next-door-neighber’s yard came down. Houston tucked up her skirts and stepped past the water, and she’ll do the same here.