Don't Mess with Texas

Like everyone else, I'm watching the news coverage of the Texas hurricane/flooding, hoping that as many people can be saved as possible. Like many, I am also questioning why Houston wasn't at least given the option to evacuate (rather than a mandatory evacuation). I imagine a lot of people weren't prepared because they thought, "Well, if it's going to be really bad, they'll tell me to leave", and never got that message. The governor said he didn't want the roads choked, but they knew well in advance this was going to be a very bad storm and the city is prone to flooding. Obviously, the more people that could have left, the less people that would be left to rescue now. They knew it was going to be bad, but this was obviously much worse than they thought could happen.

I just hope that cities around the country and the federal government learn big lessons from this disaster, so that they can respond better in the future when these kinds of events do happen, because they certainly will. I hope they learn that it's not an option to cut the funding for the government programs that are necessary to save people during and after times of crisis, and to really prevent some of these crises to begin with using better city planning. I don't want lots of people to have to die so that other people can learn a lesson that they really should have learned after Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters. 

Thinking of you, Texas and Louisiana, and hoping the best for everyone out there!