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Thanks!
I can see from your post that evacuations are not feasable even in a red state. The roads are just too small for the population, and rail service is not viable. |
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Population? |
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TEXAS do the math |
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Great report. As those in the Survival forum have stressed over and over, the most important reason to make BugOut preperations is so that you can be the FIRST person to leave the area. Once the mass of the population figures out that it's time to go, you are totally screwed. You MUST be both PREPARED and WILLING to leave EARLY, or you may not get out at all.
-Troy |
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Absolutely. My aunt left Galveston at 4am on Tuesday because she could see what was about to happen. She spent the week with relatives near Shreveport.
Hope your wife learned something from this. |
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My wholehearted thanks for those who have contributed to the survival forums especially with respect to the thread on Rita. I learned a helluva lot from those threads and got all my family out with little-to-no drama. Only 2 of my half dozen or so friends with family got out of Houston at all. Both of them had a miserable experience on the road due to lack of preparedness and planning which led to wavering and DELAY IN ACTION. All the others could not escape traffic and turned around, only to spend hours in terror waiting for the storm to come. |
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Great report!
I am thankful that she took a turn to the East but my heart goes out to my neighbors in the areas that were hit hard. Here in Lufkin we got some high winds and there are many trees down but it could have been much worse. Take care. BigDozer66 |
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wow
all you need now is a sawed off shotgun and a lunatic with a mohawk |
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all you need now is a sawed off shotgun and a lunatic with a mohawk
...and a 6-71 blower. |
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Next time, do your rig up all in diamond plate and call yourself The Humongous.
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I just have to say, my state is beautiful, even on the highways.
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Why did it take authorities so long to open up I-45 to contra flow traffic?
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Don't forget the ass-less leather pants. |
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This was puzzling. The radio stations were all announcing that the contra-flow was starting at 9 am on thursday. It was to begin down in Galveston and go all the way to Buffalo. It was clear when I got to 45 (by 9-10 am in the Madisonville area) that the lanes were indeed cleared. We would see an occasional DPS trooper flying down the southbound lanes going SOUTH, but no one was directing us to crossover and there were no obvious areas to crossover. |
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I think the biggest lesson for the rest of us is to
ALWAYS have alternate routes planned for emergency bugouts ! I always figure that the masses will head for major highways,and not nearly as many plan on using the secondary roads. Normally main highways are the way to go,but when everyone does that at the same time,well you see what happened. |
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20 mpg from a Chevy pickup in all that mess? WOW
My Crown Vic gets 20-21 mpg on 100% highway cruising... wtf?????? |
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5.3L Vortec. Damn good motor. With that kind of mileage I would be hard pressed to take a diesel over it, just for the fact that diesel pumps are not nearly as common and the stations that carry diesel have 1 diesel pumps vs 6-10 gas pumps. |
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I don't understand why that is such a hard decision. From stories that was a major problem in Katrina as well. During Ivan, and Dennis, Governor Riley of AL opened up all lanes of hwy 65 northbound all the way to Montgomery. Traffic moved great. |
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I checked the gas mileage specs for 2005/2006 Silverado 1500s and they were rated 16/20, the same as my Crown Vic. How are you able to get 20 mpg in stop and go SHTF traffic w/ that pickup? Hot damn... that's some fine fucking factory tuning if you ask me... Ford claims they use the OHC Modular motors because of their efficiency. My 2003 E-250 with a 5.4L SOHC V8 gets 16 mpg in highway driving with rush hour congestion... it CAN get 21-22 mpg if you draft behind tractor trailers on 100% highway driving for long distances (600 mile trips).
But DAMN, 20 mpg with that much motor and that much truck is very good. Keep that truck as long as it runs, don't let anyone talk you into selling it. My Crown Vic will get 13-15 mpg in heavy stop and go traffic w/o the A/C. |
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I've got 16 ways out of my city that don't include the major roads. All mapped out all traveled and reconed. When I go to events that are put on for the wisconsin crew, I don't take the highway if I am driving, I use it as an exercise to travel and check out alternate BO routes. |
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And take some INITIATIVE. Don't endanger your vehicle or passengers, but do what needs to be done to continue moving safely in the direction you need to go. Great thread, ClayP. Have your priorities in order and do not let greed, a soft heart, lust, ego, overconfidence, machismo, ect. blur your focus on your objective. |
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I have to say that just prior to my departure at 4am, I had a very difficult time focusing on exactly what small tasks had to be completed. I had to slap myself a few times to clear my mind of any inklings of panic, and re-focus on my mental checklist. In retrospect a concise written checklist would have been a great aid to oneself.
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No but that man-bitch is rather tempting... |
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I think part of what took so long to get contraflow in effect was that they did it for such a long distance. I-45 was turned to contraflow all the way up to Corsicana at one point, that's about 200 miles of interstate that they have to get police and state troopers set up to block traffic from entering it going southbound.
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I have some of the same issues with my wife. I dont let my truck get below 1/2 a tank(chevy 2500 34 gallon tank), she doesnt care and routinly runs here jeep to dang near empty. I keep trying to explain to her that since we live in Tampa that if the SHTF we will NOT have available resources if everyone is buggin' out if we decide to leave etc:
Gonna have her read your thread and then MAYBE she'll listen |
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Good story and pics, there is a lesson to be learned everytime something like this happens, but we learn from our and everyone elses mistakes. Looks like you were pretty well prepared and everything worked out well " i hope". Nice job Clayp
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When I was in Houston I lived in Cy-Fair.
I probably would have gutted it out. |
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I evac_ed from kemah to spring. Didn't leave until 6:00pm I noticed no one was on the HOV even though the main lanes were at a complete stand still. Once I got on the HOV it was smooth sailing.
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Too bad we missed the Evac fun.
Instead, we stayed and bar-b-qued and grilled outside everyday this week. A nice long 4 day vacation without any traffic to fight. |
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Kharn |
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Sounds like you didn't quite leave early enough. I got high winds and some rain in Lufkin. No damage to home although some on my street did. Did get lots of limbs in yard and some broke off trees. Lights were off from about 0530 Saturday until 0230 Sunday. I had water and gas the whole time.
Did lose what little I had in the freezer and refrigerator though. |
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Us too. we watched movies and ate popcorn, and loaded mags for the chuds and chickenheads. I bought a new playstation game for the kids, and they were good to go. |
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