RICHMOND, Texas – Hurricane Rita may not have made landfall directly in the Houston area, but she still left a legacy that Houstonians will never forget.
Roughly 100 people died while trying to evacuate the Houston metro area in gridlock conditions as the then Category 5 hurricane barreled toward the Texas Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Rita, which spun up just a month after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, takes a backseat to its sister storm in the deadly 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season. However, Houstonians learned a very important lesson with that storm: being prepared and having a plan to evacuate is paramount.
The thought of another hurricane creating gridlock on Houston interstates is something that keeps Fort Bend County Emergency Management Director Greg Babst up at night.
“Rita was one of those types of hurricanes that came through Houston, way back when,” Babst said. “People didn’t have a plan back then and they just told people to evacuate. People died out on freeways.”
It’s not that they’re not ready this time around.
Rather, their evacuation routes are already backed up.
Construction projected along two vital evacuation routes has the road condensed down to one or two lanes in parts.
There are two major points that concern Babst. The first being along Southwest Freeway where the road crosses the Brazos River.
“The elevation of the river has risen, greatly in that area. And the bridge has started to deteriorate,” Babst said. “They’re actually taking bits of the bridge away from that area, overpass and then expanding it so that it meets code. That’s a three year project that they’re working. It’s a huge project. I mean, they’re taking pieces of road from basically a three-lane road down to a one-lane road.”
Another area of concern is along the Grand Parkway where several sections of roads cross water, including the Buffalo Bayou.
“There’s major construction expansions of all those roads,” Babst said. “There’s a lot of roads that go over creeks and riverbeds, that again, they’re tearing down bridges and expanding those bridges and so two lanes or three lanes have gone down to one lane. Even if there’s a call for an evacuation, you can’t build a bridge back to three lanes.”
You don’t have to be an engineer to know that these projects could cause some chaos come an evacuation.
Gage Goulding: “How did that work during Beryl? Did you have any problems or was that like a good test run for that?”
Greg Babst: “I would say a good test run.”
Gage Goulding: “Would you potentially have to call those evacuations earlier than you typically would to make sure people are out of harm’s way?”
Greg Babst: “We’re gonna have to set evacuations out a lot earlier.”
That includes earlier evacuations for coastal counties like Galveston, Brazoria and Matagorda Counties. They all need to pass through Fort Bend County to get to safety.
“We’ve got to come up with basically, a plan for a plan during this construction time,” Babst said.
Local and state leaders knew about this construction and the problem is might present.
“This expansion had to happen,” he said. “If we don’t expand, we’re going to become more of a problem on a daily basis and it’s not going to get better.”
What’s the plan to potentially move millions of people if evacuations are called?
Babst says they plan on using feeder roads to help alleviate traffic while also relying on construction crews to reopen lanes as quick as possible.
You can also help by getting out of dodge earlier.
“I would definitely leave early,” said Rodderi Holmes of Stafford. “I would I would not sit.”
“I mean, yeah, we would have to get out sooner,” added Jessica Tolbert. “Probably leave maybe, like, a couple of days or so before the actual hurricane hits.”
Gage Goulding: “What would you tell Mom and Dad at home?”
Greg Babst: “Evacuate. And then if nothing does happen to your home or your area, be thankful and just be like, all right, nothing happened. But I was safe no matter what.”