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Hurricane downgraded, evacuations chaotic
Published September 22, 2005
ANGLETON — The entire Texas coastline was under a hurricane warning Thursday, and a slightly weakened but still devastating Hurricane Rita continued to churn across the Gulf of Mexico.
At 1 p.m. Thursday, Rita was a Category 4 storm with sustained winds near 150 mph, downgraded from a Category 5 storm.
Forecasters projected the storm would make landfall late Friday night or early Saturday morning at High Island, which would put Brazoria County on the storm’s so-called clean side.
With less wind and storm surge, Rita’s counterclockwise rotation loses power over land. That could still bring a storm surge of 8 to 10 feet and hurricane force winds to the county.
That much storm surge would flood eastern parts of the county south of FM 2004, Brazoria County Judge John Willy said. A surge at that level should not overflow the levees, meaning Freeport along with Lake Jackson, Clute and communities West of the Brazos would remain above water.
“I would smile very big and be happy to go help the people to the east because they are going to need it,” Willy said of Rita’s potential change in course.
Bill Reed, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Houston-Galveston office, said the storm track is still uncertain. A high pressure ridge over Texas was beginning to move east, which is what allowed Rita’s turn on a more northerly course than its current north by northwest track.
Reed said if the storm doesn’t turn as far north as the track projects the county will take a direct hit.
“The debate among the forecasters this morning was how much of a westward track it will take,” Reed said in a conference call with state and county officials throughout the Texas coast.
Brazoria County officials continued to try to get people south of Highway 35 to evacuate. Willy said if the current projections hold, he will not call for an evacuation of the rest of the county, expected to take about 12 hours. A decision would be made after the National Weather Service’s 4 p.m. briefing Thursday.
The county’s mandatory evacuation evolved into chaos Wednesday as people begin to flee Houston and Brazoria County residents dashed for Highway 36, which turned into a parking lot while ignoring Highway 288, which was running relatively quickly.
Willy said one of the biggest problems was evacuations in Fort Bend and Harris counties, which further clogged already congested roads and brought Interstate 45, Highway 59 and Highway 290 to a halt.
The city of Houston and Harris County ignored the state designed evacuation plan, Willy said.
“I think we had a good plan. We followed our plan to the tee,” Willy said. “The cities, all of our law enforcement, our EMSs, everybody did a fabulous job down here until Houston and Harris County forgot there was a plan.”
Houston Mayor Bill White said during a televised news conference that it is up to the city of Houston to implement its own evacuation plan. White said coastal areas such as Brazoria County are supposed to start their evacuations before inland areas.
White did not explain why Houston and Harris County called for voluntary evacuations before the mandatory evacuations in Brazoria County went into effect.
Willy said Harris County evacuations are intended for those in the eastern part of the county that are more prone to flooding, and they are supposed to go east. Instead Willy said Harris County evacuees went west, which he blamed on the state’s failure to provide enough Texas Department of Public Safety troopers.
DPS Sgt. Randy Jones of the Angleton office concurred.
Jones said of the 175 DPS troopers the state promised to send the county, only 70 showed up and those didn’t arrive until 9 p.m. Wednesday, three hours after the mandatory evacuation started.
“I can’t handle this evacuation without manpower,” Jones said Wednesday afternoon. “This is ridiculous.”
DPS officials in Austin referred questions to Gov. Rick Perry’s office. Perry’s office did not return calls Wednesday and did not have immediate comment Thursday.
There was one confirmed fatality on the evacuation route, which happened about 4:30 a.m. Thursday on Highway 36, 100 yards south of the Fort Bend County line.
Jones said the driver drove off the road and hit a tree. No other details, including the driver’s identity, were available.
Michael Wright is a reporter for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 849-8581.
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