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11:22 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 12, 2007
By Dave Fehling / 11 News
So far so good for Texas when it comes to hurricanes this year, but we can never let our guard down.
There are new plans that could make a critical difference to you if you try to evacuate.
If you lived in Houston two summers ago, you might have memories like Annalisa Villanueva.
“It was really, really bad, really scary,” she said.
“It” was the escape from Rita.
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 | “What happened during Rita was everybody sort of panicked and tried to run through the door at the same time,” Bill King said.
King served on the governor’s task force to find out what went wrong.
“Fuel was one of the critical areas we looked at,” King said.
People trying to evacuate ran out of gas because many gas stations both in Houston and along the evacuation route were themselves either out of gas or closed.
11 News: “Had anyone thought about where gasoline was going to come from and how it would be delivered?”
King: “No. There was really not a plan before Rita.
“Some of the officials I talked to thought it was not part of the government responsibility to make sure there were adequate fuel supplies,” he said.
Keeping the gasoline flowing is critical for an evacuation, or after a hurricane hits and damages refineries. Two years ago after Rita, Houston knew it had a problem. State and local officials knew it would be running on empty unless something was done differently.
So now, two summers later, a new plan is in place.
When Hurricane Dean threatened Texas last month, the state not only moved the troops in, it worked with the big oil companies to move fuel.
“And they know where all the fuel trucks are, and they send them to us in advance of the storm,” Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said.
Martin Padilla is critical to the effort.
He’s with Shell and during Dean, worked in the state’s command center.
“If we do need assistance getting tank trucks into retail sites, we can use the Transtar cameras to look at alternative sites, use the Texas DPS escorts, Texas military escorts,” Padilla said.
Did it work?
Although Dean didn’t hit Texas, officials said the new plan looked promising, successfully moving gasoline to Houston and other coastal cities where demand soared after driver’s were urged to keep their tanks filled.
It also allowed the gas stations to fill their underground tanks to the top, whereas normally they’re only half-full.
We’ve reached the peak of hurricane season, and hopefully none of this will be put to the test for real anytime soon.
But drivers like Bob Cooper, who’d had bad experiences evacuating last time, have faith next time will be better.
“They way they’re talking it should be,” Cooper said. “But if it’s a 3 or 4, I’m staying.”
And if more do stay next time, it’s one more reason the fuel may not run out.
Click here to read the article on KHOU.com
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