Good luck, guys...

I have been truly hoping that, as a lesson to the MSM (and the entire country), evacuation and preparation efforts in Texas would demonstrate a sharp contrast to those in Louisiana, and that the difference would be shown to be the state and local officials responsible.

These pictures from Below the Beltway show you what I'm talking about.

First, a scene from Houston, TX:

Thank you.  Next slide, please--New Orleans, LA:

Any questions?

This morning, however, a report comes that the sheriff of one county through which evacuating traffic is flowing has the interstate down to one lane northbound.  (I haven't found this story online yet, so hopefully later I can have a link and confirm this.)

Come on, guys, that's not the way to do it.

On the other hand, I also understand that within an hour or so I-45 will convert all of its southbound lanes to northbound, doubling evacuation traffic, and all major routes out will do the same within a few hours.  Hey, even in SC we were smart enough to do that in 1989 with Hugo (at the time the costliest hurricane in US history) and evacuated Charleston smoothly (at least those who were smart enough to evacuate).  By the time Hugo reached Charlotte, NC, he was still packing 85 to 100mph winds.  That was in Charlotte, hundreds of miles inland.  But I digress.

It appears that our friends in TX are doing things much more as they should be than their counterparts in LA managed (which seems to have amounted to jumping up and down, yelling louder and louder until someone came to save them and "their" city).

Also, I understand that folks evacuating Galveston will have to pass through Houston to reach points north.  Not a good thing, but if the traffic keeps moving smoothly, not a bad thing either.

UPDATE:  It's 1:20 PM Eastern time, and the southbound lanes of I-45 have apparently not yet been opened to northbound traffic.  Don't know why, or why people couldn't go west from town instead of north.  Maybe a native Texan can enlighten me here.