Beaumont Enterprise:Who leaves for storms, who doesn't a matter of regional evacuation policy

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The Golden Triangle and the Houston area shared a messy exodus during Hurricane Rita, but the evacuation policies developed since then differ drastically.

Houston's disaster plan calls for mandatory evacuation of areas in the storm surge flood zones which stretch 30 to 40 miles inland.

On the other hand, Orange, Jefferson and Hardin prefer evacuating entire counties, even moving residents who live 60 or 70 miles from the coast.

"We don't evacuate people unless we feel like it is the absolute necessary thing to do," said Theresa Wigley, emergency management coordinator for Hardin County.

Hurricane Rita changed the way the upper Texas coast reacted to hurricanes. Officials throughout Southeast Texas saw trees pile onto rooftops and fry electric grids, while in Houston, officials struggled to evacuate a city of 2 million people.

In 2006, the metropolitan Houston area developed a map that schedules mandatory evacuations of its 300,000 residents who live within the coastal storm surge area, but asked those who live beyond the area - as close as 40 miles from Galveston Island - to "sit tight" or wait to leave when the roads are clear.

Similarly, Jefferson County's mandatory evacuations were staggered, with coastal Sabine Pass leaving at 6 a.m. on August 31. Port Arthur left two hours later, then Mid-County and Beaumont.

The Houston-area map, which includes Galveston, Brazoria, Harris and Chambers counties, will evacuate ZIP codes within a few miles of the coast and lower Galveston Bay for any hurricane, while areas 10 to 15 miles from the coast would evacuate for a Category 3 storm. Residents deeper into the area, up to about 40 miles from the coast, would evacuate only in Category 4 or 5 storms.

With 300,000 people estimated to live in the storm surge zones, the region faces a huge chore.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett told the Houston Chronicle at the start of last year's hurricane season that those outside the surge areas should not act as they did in the Rita evacuation. They should "batten down" or wait until those leaving under mandatory evacuation have gone.

Developed by the Houston Galveston Area Council with the state and federal government, the map mainly takes storm surge into account, evacuating areas where homes are likely to flood.

"If Houston had the means of evacuating their entire population, they would," said Orange County Judge Carl Thibodeaux. "We have 85,000 people in Orange County. They've got that many in downtown."

According to Texas Department of Transportation maps, storm surge would affect coastal portions of Jefferson and Chambers counties and Orange County around the shores of Sabine Lake. Other parts of the region, such as Lumberton, would be hit by surges along the Neches River and creeks.

Storm surge accounts for 1 percent of tropical-system deaths, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Freshwater flooding of bodies of water such as the Neches River or Sabine Lake account for 59 percent. Often, rain causes the flooding, but many of those killed by Hurricane Katrina drowned when levees broke and Lake Pontchartrain flooded the city.

Wind - one of the main concerns of Southeast Texas officials - is the culprit in 12 percent of storm deaths.

"Even if they're not in the storm surge, the majority of damage is from the trees falling," said Hardin County's Wigley. "We have a lot of trees in this county, and after Rita, we saw a lot of roofs gone."

The thousands of damaged homes convinced officials that if the area had not evacuated en masse, the storm could have killed more than the 54 finally credited to it. Most of those deaths were indirect, with people killed in the evacuation or the aftermath.


In anticipation of a storm, officials take information from the National Weather Service and the governor's office for days. Within three days of landfall, county judges will gather with mayors in the county to determine whether to evacuate, a decision officials say they do not make lightly.

"You're trying to get people out for their own safety," said Jeff Branick, assistant to Jefferson County Judge Ron Walker, regarding the mandatory evacuation call for Gustav. "You would hate to have someone asleep in their bed and have a tree fall and kill them."

Following Hurricane Rita, some areas had no electricity for nearly a month, Branick said, and many roads were impassable because of downed trees. While officials cannot forcibly remove people from homes, Thibodaux said, calling for a mandatory evacuation tells them first responders - police, firefighters and emergency medical help - will be limited during the storm and in its aftermath.

"You can't guarantee their safety. You can't guarantee their life support. After Rita, people survived by candlelight and barbecue pits."