We might as well just wait for doom

Earlier, I expressed some optimism that were Boston to be faced with a Katrina- or Rita-like impending disaster, we could evacuate the city. After all, City Hall has A Plan (charmingly dubbed Exodus), and never mind that the state officials who would have to re-configure state highways to get us all out haven't even read it.

Recent events, however, make one wonder.

On Wednesday, a bunch of Newton firefighters standing in crosswalks in Newton Corner caused a 20-mile backup on the Mass. Pike. In an emergency, one might hope the firefighters would be at their stations, rather than in the middle of an intersection cursing out motorists, but what happens if, oh, a bus carrying evacuees crashes and burns at that same intersection?

And now look at Houston - a city surrounded by highways, where an evacuation from Hurricane Rita has itself become a potential disaster because the roads could not handle all the people trying to get out and now many of those people are stuck out in the open as a Category 4 hurricane heads toward them.

As with New Orleans, there are differences. Even the Hurricane of '38 was "only" a Category 3 storm. Although the immediate coastline is flat, the terrain gets pretty hilly relatively close to the shore (thanks, glaciers!). Still, Sharon wonders:

... Even with days of advance warning, it has still proven all but impossible to evacuate major metropolitan areas relying largely on private vehicles. After the crisis eases, this is something officials will have to think long and hard about. Do we try to come up with plans that will allow for reasonable evacuations, that somehow better augment the private automobile/SUV? Do we acknowledge that our current development patterns are dangerous, and work in the long term to make them safer? Or do we basically acknowledge that such widescale emergency evacuation needs are rare and thus accept this inability to get people out in a reasonable manner? ...