"Who's Gonna Drive You Home Tonight?"

Lest you believe the evacuation for Rita wasn't as bad as it's been described in the paper, I'm including some shots of the freeways and gas lines at the height of the "run away" time. My DH's collegue sent him these. Many of these shots were taken near the freeway we go to work on--Huntsville is a small city nearby--and days later, when I finally returned to work, there were still dozens of disabled cars lining the sides of the road. People either hadn't returned for them yet, or more likely, the tow trucks were working overtime trying to get every car off the road in the larger cities and didn't have time to come for these.

The first shot is the entitled "broken down on the I-45 near Huntsville." Can you see why?

Next is a shot of people standing in line to buy a few gallons of gas to take back to their cars. And this doesn't even include the cars still waiting in line to buy gas that ran out before they ever got in line (that's the next picture).











All things considered, as hot as it was, and as scared as most of us were, it is amazing to me that there weren't more accidents, fist fights, and incidents. There were a few, but when you consider how many people moved out of the gulf coast areas in the short amount of time given (estimates are a couple of million or more), these folks were remarkably well-behaved. People for the most part really did try to help out and keep their temper, although there are always the few jerks who spoil it for everyone else. However, there were no repeats of New Orleans here, thank God.

And that's what it's all about, isn't it?

TJB