oh, for fuck's sake

bus explodes. 20+ people die. trying to evacuate from a fucking hurricane.

but wait, there's more. experts are warning about storm surges. today's understatement: It's a very bad situation for New Orleans.

Here's what the Governor of Louisiana said about people who weren't planning on evacuating: Perhaps they should write their Social Security numbers on their arms in indelible ink.

The delays were long enough for one ice cream seller on I-45 to do a brisk business on the highway, as drivers left their stopped cars to buy refreshments. Cars overheated and broke down and others ran out of gas, worsening the crush.

The question is how many people will be gravely ill and die sitting on the side of the freeway," said State Representative Garnet Coleman, Democrat of Houston. "Dying not from the storm, but from the evacuation."
Mr. Coleman's family had tried to leave the city Thursday at his urging - he is traveling on the West Coast - but they gave up after 12 hours of stalled traffic, without even passing the city's outer ring highway.
"If you can't move outside the city of Houston in 12 hours, then nobody else is getting out," Mr. Coleman said. "This is it. Because even if you tried to leave now, you would not move fast enough to get out of harm's way in advance of the storm."


The situation raised serious worries about how the city would handle something like a terrorist attack, he said. can we worry about one thing at a time please?

At one point, Mr. Adcock said, he called the Texas Department of Transportation for an alternate route, but the woman who answered could not find a map. awesome, no maps. poor mr. adcock. adcock!

Governor Blanco of Louisiana appealed for 30,000 more Army and National Guard troops to respond to Hurricane Rita. Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, director of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, said he would forward to request for to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. well, isn't that sweet of him. you have to forward a request for the national guard after a state's been hit by a devistating hurricane and another one is on its way? i'm really not sure about that one. i think there should be some sort of "we're fucked, send troops" hotline for situations like this.