The Best Laid Plans...

Robert Burns famous quote, "The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Often Go Awry"
comes to mind this evening.

I have no idea how much the rest of the nation may know about the present
situation in Houston prior to hurricane Rita, but I'll tell you a little about
it anyway.

This evening in Houston, we have thousands upon thousands of people
stranded on the freeways trying to get out of the city in an attempt to
evade approaching hurricane Rita. Most of them have been in virtually the
same spot in traffic for 10-12 hours.

Due to traffic gridlock, those people have run out of gas. Further, there is
no gas available in Houston. The city is desperately trying to arrange for
gas to be brought to the stranded motorists. The unanticipated panic on the
part of everyone in the Houston area depleted the existing gas supplies. Even if
there was any gas available, the traffic gridlock is so bad the trucks can't
easily reach the stranded motorists. Right now, it's total chaos. In the worst case scenario, the vehicles will be abandoned on the clogged arteries and people will be taken to a "worse case scenario" evacuation center.

I got up at 2:30 a.m. this morning to try and get out of town. I made it 3 blocks and
turned back. I never dreamed I would see traffic stopped on the freeway at
2:30 a.m. True, I could have entered the freeway and sat there with everyone else, but I don't have that level of patience. I think I'd rather die in the storm. What a dose of fresh hell for these folks.

Some people have been sitting in their cars for over 16 hours now and have only
travelled a few miles. It's nearly 100 degrees here today. The people are
dehydrated and becoming ill. The storm arrives tomorrow. If a solution is
not reached soon, these folks will be in harm's way from the storm. One official termed it a death certificate.

Do I think anybody should be blamed? No. The officials
imposed this evacuation with the best of intentions for ensuring people's
safety. What they did not anticipate is that so many people would freak out
and try to leave the area. While the evacuation of areas threatened by the storm surge is
one thing, having the whole city try to bail out is quite another. After
all, Houston is the nation's 4th largest city.

So, here Houston is in this mess. Prayer is needed. If you have any of those types of thoughts sitting around, and can spare them, please forward them to Houston right away.

For once, the plea is not "Houston, we have a problem."
The plea has been reversed: "Y'all, Houston has a problem."