A lot of the people started out Wednesday afternoon and evening, when the landfall was projected to be Matagorda Bay area and heading inland with strong winds towards Austin. It was also on the radio yesterday that Austin was out of hotel rooms by mid-afternoon. All major Houston oadways were shown as jammed on the online traffic site at 11pm, exits on some routes were restriced before then.
I left Victoria 4am today (Thursday), had no trouble on 87 and 183 to Austin. Dodged the 183 and 290 parking lots when entering town, and had an easy time on 35 up to DFW and then fell asleep 30 seconds after takeoff. No way in hell I was going to IAH for the original flight, didn't even consider it for Wednesday. Other that the folks lined up around the gas stations under I-10, didn't have any slowdowns. I was prepared with food and water to drive all the way up here to CO.
Gas prices were 2.59 all the way up from Victoria, I think Waco might even have been a bit cheaper. Saw a convoy of 30-50 ambulances and comfy buses heading south on 87, saw lots of school buses and NatGuard heading south on 35.
WTF was with the bus drivers in Austin going on strike this morning - KVET was all over them.