I'm sure for everyone who watched the situation with Hurricane Rita unfold on television, it likely appeared that everything in the southeast part of Texas was a complete mess. As one who survived the hype and subsequent turmoil, I can only agree. It was a mess.
Our home is just a few blocks away from the I-45 corridor and to see such a happening at our doorstep was pretty doggone scary! I probably should have taken some notes to log how I was feeling at this point, what I was thinking at that point, whatever. It would have made an incredible blog (from my perspective anyway). Of course, the fact that I, along with some 2.5 million evacuees, were not actually in harm's way would take a lot of steam out of such a story. That's the trouble with responding to such hurricane warnings. Mother Nature always has the final say and noone in their right mind can ever truly predict where such a storm will run aground. But, after seeing what transpired hardly 4 weeks before in Louisiana, anyone would have been foolish to wait around to see if the storm might turn.
Still, after spending $100 on plywood to cover the windows at my house, fighting the evacuee traffic to get to work, spending 1 1/2 days without electricity and dealing with the uncertainty following Rita, I've come away with a few lessons of my own.
First of all, planning is vital. There are people who are good at it and folks in charge need to find those people and give them a job planning for rainy days like this. A good planner would have foreseen people getting stuck in traffic and running out of gas along an evacuation route. That kind of thing happens in movies, for crying out loud. If something like this happens again and people run out of gas, get stranded, etc. there will be a lot of people demanding answers. So, while we're waiting for the next storm, someone needs to hire one of those "planning" types and put them to work preparing for the next "big one."
Fear can make a bad situation worse. The last thing people need is a reason to panic. Some folks don't even need a reason. It didn't help that Rita was right on the heels of Katrina. After watching non-stop coverage of the Katrina aftermath, people had been primed to respond to Rita. "Get outta Dodge!" If people are given a reason a reason to panic, strange things will follow in short order, which leads me to my next lesson.
The biggest tragedy of the evacuation had to be that despite what planning went on, people did what they wanted to. For instance, the evacuation schedule. There were folks who had been given mandatory evacuation orders, considered in harm's way in Galveston and all points from there to Houston, who were stranded on roadways as the storm made its final approach. Why? People in points north of them were already on the roads out of town. In the end, people did just what they wanted to. It's a good thing the storm turned when it did and didn't catch any unfortunate souls still on the roadways.
It's a collossal understatement to say that a crisis will bring the worst out in people. It's the stress, right? Any reasonable person can only take so much. Still, some are able to take more than others. But, what can be said about people who take out their frustrations on whoever or whatever might be in front of them? Heresay is abundant, but many eyewitnesses said a lot of the same things. People were acting like animals. Urinating and deficating in public places, intimidating and verbally abusing innocent people who were just "in the way." I guess a crisis will not only bring out the worst in people but will unearth the worst OF people. I have to say it looked that way along the I-45 corridor.
Everyone stuck on the road a few weeks ago was hot and tired. Most of them needed help of some kind and hopefully they received it in some form or another. Many were grateful for whatever they could get. Many wanted more and were disappointed that they didn't get this or that. Some were ungrateful and took their frustrations out on those who tried to help. Some saw it as an excuse to behave like animals. For me, it comes back to one's perspective. How does a person view their circumstances? Was this a crisis or an opportunity? Many saw it as a crisis and responded in kind. Fortunately, many saw this a an opportunity and both grateful and ungrateful alike were better for it.
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