Yesterday during his radio show racist shart-stain Sean Hannity several times criticized Houston’s black Mayor, Sylvester Turner, for not ordering a general evacuation of Houston ahead of Hurricane Harvey. I don’t have access to the stupidity he was mouthing yesterday, but remembering the disastrous results of evacuations ordered ahead of Hurricane Rita in 2005, listening I felt that his attempts to create controversy, or dare I say “fake news”, surrounding the issue smacked of political opportunism and an attempt to preemptively deflect any criticism of his bff drumpf.
A piece from today’s NYTimes confirmed my suspicions.
Noting all the difficulties of evacuating a city of eight million plus, the fact that 66% of flood deaths occur to people in their cars, and the fact that the majority of deaths occurred on the highways during Rita (when massive traffic jams immobilized folks trying to flee) including the horrific bush crash that claimed the lives of 24 nursing home residents on Highway 45 (pictured above), the Times has this to say about evacuation.
“As residents continued to be plucked from roofs and rescued from flooded streets on Monday, it became increasingly evident that Mr. Turner’s decision not to order a mandatory evacuation in the face of Hurricane Harvey was the most significant move of his first 20 months in office, and perhaps his long political career. Though criticized from afar, the decision was praised by many Houston officials and residents who remember the disaster that unfolded before Hurricane Rita in October 2015, when local officials called an evacuation that put 3.7 million people in sweltering, hourslong traffic jams that resulted in more than 100 deaths.
The decision not to evacuate Houston this time has played out at a time of intense political polarization in Texas, often pitting a Democratic city against a Republican governor and legislature, and it came amid what could become the most expensive disaster in Texas history. It was also a kind of emblematic dilemma facing leaders of coastal cities in an age of a warming climate and ever more powerful storms, who are often left with no good options — only less-bad ones.”
Even Turner’s 2016 Republican rival for the city’s top spot, Bill King, had nothing but praise for the mayor’s decision…
“Still, Mr. King, the mayor’s competitor in the 2015 election, said that he fully supported the mayor’s decision not to call an evacuation order. He, too, cited the experience with Hurricane Rita.
“It was a nightmare,” he said. “On a normal day, our roadways are not designed to handle that many people moving in one direction. Gas stations don’t keep that much of an inventory of gas on hand. Some cars are going to be old and break down. And usually when this happens, it’s hot as hell in Houston. You put people not in good health in that situation, it’s a recipe for disaster.”
As quoted above there are no good options in a disaster scenario...only less bad ones. The fact is that Houston has shown itself to be, like New Orleans, particularly vulnerable to flooding and only intelligent city planning and massive infrastructure improvements, plus a wise response to climate change, will do anything to ameliorate that situation going forward.
But when you have one political party dedicated to disproving the efficacy of government in any situation, such improvements will be hard to put into place as long as that party has any shred of political power.
But if they are not going to be part of the solution, the least they can do if STFU and let the grown ups that the people of the city elect deal with the mess the government bashers will take no efforts to avoid.
That includes you, Hannity.