Things Ain't Goin' Too Good At Houston

(with all due respect to Dallas which had an episode called "Things Ain't Goin' Too Good At Southfork")

Yesterday, I was praising Texas' officials for their cool-headedness and evacuations plans. Well, pictures out of Houston today tell a different story....

This is I-45 North and Paramatta in Houston, captured from a traffic camera at 6:26PM CDT. Where the hell is the contraflow? I count 7 cars, I think, in the southbound lanes, while everyone is just sitting in the northbound lanes. There have been reports of people taking a couple of hours just to travel 3-4 miles. Other people have been pushing their cars to conserve gas. TXDoT officials have been trying to get to people stuck on the road with gas cans, but TXDoT are running out of gas themselves. A noble effort, but they can't possible get to everyone.

Who is responsible for making the decision to set up contraflow on a highway? Is it local officials? Governor Perry? Why wasn't it set up earlier? It reportedly has been in some places, but obviously not everywhere.

Things seemed to be going so well yesterday. Whoever should have made this decision, but didn't until the highway around Houston became parking lots, needs to be tarred and feathered.