It is now reported that Houston's Democrat Mayor Sylvester Turner refused to order mandatory evacuations ahead of Harvey hitting the city. This situation mirrors Katrina in New Orleans back in August 2005, where another liberal mayor failed to order evacuations until it was too late.
Now, we are seeing many rescuers desperately trying to rescue Houston residents in danger of rapidly rising water after the area saw in excess of 20 inches of rain. Homes are devastated and people are still struggling to find safe haven, in spite of FEMA efforts.
Delmarva is long overdue for a hurricane hit so it is something to consider. Maybe it's a good measure that should this happen here, we would be wise to self-evacuate using common sense to make the decision instead of waiting for a government person to issue a mandatory one.
Turner defends his decision which has left so many stranded and in dire straits, it leaves us to ponder, could our mayor do the same in similar circumstances? Scary thought.
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42 comments:
I expected nothing less , it seems like a trend with some special leaders in the south. Elect these people for their abilities , not for race or any other thing.
People should evacuate on their own accord especially in the panhandle. Katrina wasn't that long ago to remember. Look at all the people who perished then.
I'd be willing to bet that as recent a memory we have of flooding by Pep Boys that the culvert pipes at the railroad tracks still have dead wood sitting in front of them ready to float up during our next storm. I'll get over there and take pictures today, but there's probably 6 more places around here in the same situation.
We could evacuate, but there will just be another flooded road in our path!
He going behind bars anyway.
And don't forget a lot of the people that left New Orleans after Katrina settled in Houston.
When the final count comes in , it will surprise you , nursing homes , hospitals and elderly care should have been a mandatory . Just use a small portion of you brain.
This wont happen with Fake Day. it's another opportunity to stand in front of a camera and grin.
They will do what they did back then - blame the president.
stop the blame game. it is up to you to do what is right not the government. we are so helpless as a people anymore. do you need the government to tell you how to go to the bathroom?????
Didn't the NOLA mayor go to prison?
Monday morning QBing with a damned if you do; damned if you don't situation. The entire scenario (mandatory/voluntary evac's) involves way more than what we sensibly know. No area is equipped for natural disaster (hell look at OC when it snows over 4 inches), plans, staging, fed help and the most important (volunteers) enable the area impacted to make it through. IF mandatory evac's took place - there would be minimal responses to those who didn't heed the warning (less boats rescuing).
Now, it can be said if a mandatory evac was issued, there would be LESS folks needing help.
Bottom line here is common sense. Don't wait for someone to tell you to leave....and you better damn well not b*tch about it on national TV when you didn't leave either! Makes you look foolish - even in Lester Holt's eyes!
809 some people don't leave or go to shelters because they can't take their pets with them. If you evacuate early you have a better chance of getting yourself and your pets out without harm. People really need to use their brains. It's not like Harvey coming their way was a government secret.
I have a friend down there but he's a survivalist trained to deal with adverse conditions. He somehow has managed to continue facebooking through the ordeal. He says it's ugly but the media is just a nuisance and in the way making it uglier.
Just looked up Mayor Turner on Wikipedia. He's a Democrat. That explains a lot.
First and foremost you are responsible for yourself and your family. Days of warnings about flooding etc, were is your common sense. You shouldn't even have to be told to evacuate.
8:20 Guess you didn't bother to read the first sentence.
I saw someone complain they were not rescued in ankle deep water. Pathetic use of emergency services.
That level of flooding doesn't happen here.
Shelia Jackson Lee was the first to take up for the mayor's action ,no surprise.
remember katrina? well when the New orleans housing got ruined they sent all the ghetto families to houston. sucks to be them. wonder where the government will move them to next? salisbury's slumlords can use them business to drive up rents to live in the squalor they provide!
I just really wish everyone would quit second guessing what Mayors in Texas are doing. There has to be reasons for everything they are doing. Read 8:15 AM Comment. Media always make things worse. Sure these people are in trouble with all the flooding but common sense should have kicked in last Wednesday or Thursday and they should have packed all their important papers, got in the car and got the heck out of there. You don't hang around and see what happens then see what the government will do for you.
I think he made a good call for the right reasons. The hospital, nursing homes, and similar, why didn't those people, the administrators, make that call to evacuate? Why must it come from the elected officials? Why can't the individuals make a sensible decision? I'm a staunch Republican by I think this Democratic mayor made the right decision for the right reasons at the right time.
That's interesting 1146 because all morning I've seen pictures on the various news channels of elderly women in dirty chest deep water stranded. Would you want your mother to be practically drowning in filthy water as she sits in her chair at the nursing home? Where's your heart?
A building is now burning in downtown Houston and no way to fight the fire because trucks can't get to it. With our local FD, I'd be evacuated long before now.
Here is something for all the brainiacs here... 2+ million people live in Houston.....and the flooding is covering half of Texas...where would you have suggested 2 million people evacuate to? You only have a few major roads going through Houston for these people to leave on. The mayor did the right thing...nothing was going to make this any easier...you people who post here are just DUMB....and if you aren't smart enough to evacuate on your own then you deserve what you get.
1208 you may have answered the question with your statement. IF an evac were issued, there isn't enough safety services to choose who gets moved 1st and then so on. Authorities didn't have weeks to make this decision, but with minimal resources, it would have taken WEEKS to coordinate such an effort. Its easy to say MOVE them, but to where, what facilities, how and the most important part - who pays? The storm grew overnight from a CAT1 to CAT4 - then within 24 hrs it went from a rain event of 20 inches to 50 inches staying for 4-6 days.
There was no right/wrong answer on this one and more heartbreaking pictures are to come since the rain is now moving east into Louisiana, where its nothing but swamp.
I don't believe anyone could have done better since we all are under resourced for something like this and the only way for help to succeed is via volunteers! It will be YEARS before there area can be rebuilt and why?
Lack of Resources (people and especially money) Today we (USA) still 20 TRILLION in debt!
1226 the only dumb here is your comment. Evacuations are ordered before a storm occurs so it gives people a chance to get out before the rain begins. You make yourself look foolish because someone with your intellect shouldn't be using big words like "brainiac."
Texas is a wide state in the midsection where Houston is but you can drive to at least NM within an 7-8 hour drive. (They have 85mph there in the Lone Star state.) If people had left on Friday or Thursday, they would be well out of harm's way by the time the hurricane made landfall. They could be sitting in Phx sipping a margarita, smoking a reservation bought cigarette and lounge lizarding by some swanky hotel pool.
Anyone looking for a car? Be aware of auctions for the next few months. All those drowned cars will be seeking a new home after they're flushed out and detailed. Nothing worse than having a auto refugee from a hurricane. Many bad cars recirculated after Katrina the same way.
The evacuation order for Houston in 2005 - as Hurricane Rita advanced just weeks after Katrina - led to 20-hour jams and the deaths of more than 100 people.
You hailed Trump for his responding to natural disasters faster than the President before. If the President goes immediately to the area it ties up emergency personnel and resources that should be going to the people. But you'll find any way to complain won't you?
12:08 I would have hoped the nursing home administrators were watching the same news you & I saw, and they had been proactive in making a move beforehand, not wait for some mandatory order and THEN try to hustle up and have those patients on the road DURING the storm. Have a heart??? I've been in more of those situations than you, I'm sure. A couple million people on the highways before this kind of storm is NOT smart. And like someone else said, this was hours to prepare, NOT weeks and months.
Hours to prepare 112? Really? I knew about Harvey before it was named and it was heading right towards the Houston/Corpus Christi area gathering steam. And that was a few days like earlier last week. SMH you people will make up any excuse no matter how ridiculous to try to argue your hilarious point.
If you really believe your comment, might I interest you in a bridge I own in Brooklyn?
If we got 30" of rain, cleared culvert pipes aren't going to do a damn thing. Nowhere can handle water like that.
When did it become the obligation of the government to hand out doses of common sense. The entire area is flat and barely above sea level. It floods often, especially when there is a gulf storm. What did they think was going to happen---HELLO
They would have started to evacuate over 2 million people before they knew that storm was even coming. If they evacuate like you saying, you've thousands stranded and stuck on the highways. there was no winning in this storm. I think people are all doing the best they can with a situation where you had a severe storm that unpredatably got worse by the hour. And still is for that matter.
Again moron where are these people going to evacuate to? There was no place for them to go to...it is you who is stupid...
he just like jack day. a real mayor would have carted them people out of town. no, not this one. i bet day won't cart none of us out when it hits here.
Another arm chair qb...armed with a phone and nothing else. Do some research. Try gathering facts to assist you in forming an intelligent opinion instead of this bile you put up here. You are a reflection of the problem with this culture. Technologically armed and intellectually handicapped.
There is a reason this was called a CATASTROPHIC storm no one could have ever predicted the amount of rain that fell these things happen and will continue to happen as long as you are living.
No Monday morning Quarterbacking here. Facts are facts. Liberal mayors see the voters as tools for their elections but when it comes to keeping them safe, they couldn't care less. Day wouldn't order any evacuations either. What's scarier is you fools would support such a dangerous action until it's your kid that drowns.
Oh God we have Democrats running everything here.
I can remember properties flooding downtown along the Wicomico River during past minimal hurricanes that closely swept the peninsula. Today's leaders are not prepared for what may happen if a direct hit were to occur.
Just another ray nagin
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