Liberty's Blog

Lyda Anne Speaks her Mind.

I thought I had blogged enough about the Rita evacuation and the following blame game. Mayor Lyda Thomas had something to say about it at the Sept. 30th council meeting.

When Galveston citizens left the island of Galveston, we had trouble. Since last spring, I have been meeting and Steve (LeBlanc – City Manager) and others have been meeting with the State of Texas Emergency Management Commission. And up until the time that I called for a voluntary evacuation of the island, we were assured time and time and time again, that we would leave the island and we would travel to Huntsville, and there we would find shelter. That is not what happened.

When our buses left the island between 6am and 10:30 on September 21st, it was smooth sailing. As things progressed on Wednesday, things began to happen in the Houston area that caused our good citizens to say on buses 12 hours, 16 hours, 2 days.

The plan called for a 3 to 4 hour trip from Galveston to Huntsville with stops along the way. It didn’t happen. As I asked our citizens to leave Galveston Island in order to get out of harms way, I am very distressed to say that I put them in harms way. That was never meant to be and I apologize to the citizens of Galveston who got on the highways based on my decision to take them out of harms way.

I will not accept the responsibility or the blame for what happened when our citizens hit the Houston area and I would urge those of you who had such a miserable trip to let the Governor of the State of Texas and our representatives know how you feel and what happened to you. I will not shoulder that responsibility.

I agree with her. She, our city, and our county goverment responded responcibly and and effectively. There was clearly lack of foresight in the planing and execution of this huge evacuation. The planing should have involved the all municipalities involved. It sounds like the state simply told the municipalities how it should work. They need to get input and work with the cities and agencys.

Our buses were not prepared for long trips. And after all, the state assured me, as your Mayor that it would take 3 to 4 hours to get to Huntsville and all would be well. Our citizens suffered indignities that no one should have to suffer. The buses had to pull over to the side of the road so that our citizens could get off the buses and relieve themselves. That works well if you’re a man, you picture it. Women had to be held in order to relieve themselves. People were dehydrated. Children without diapers and without food, it should not have happened, and I assure you that it will not happen again if I have anything to do with another evacuation.

Instead of taking you out of harms way, you went into harms way. Lives were threatened and people died on that trip, and dog’s died and cat’s died. People arrived in towns who needed dialysis and thank God there were some kind people along the way who helped our people go to a local hospital and receive the medical care that they needed. So, your lives were threatened. Your lives were threatened by a catastrophic hurricane coming in off the gulf and one of the biggest transportation foul-ups that I’ve ever witnessed and I look forward to the Governor of this state to correct what happened to our citizens and many others as they fled from the storm and ended up in life threatening situations along our Texas highways. I think that the best way for me to describe what happened is to use the phrase, what we witnessed as we tried to find shelter was nothing other than “man’s inhumanity to man.” The State of Texas is a fault here ladies and gentlemen and as your Mayor I ask you to make your considerations and your concerns and your criticisms known to your
representatives, in particular the Governor of the State of Texas.

I will accept the fact that the storm didn’t come here and I will tell you that we were very, very lucky . We’re not out of harms way. Storm season is still on and I have spent the last five days here in city hall working with Mr. LeBlanc, with the police, the firemen, with everyone concerned, to find out what was right and what was wrong about our evacuation. It will be improved, it will be better.

I suspect there are many people who are saying, “I’ll never leave this island again, no matter what the Mayor says,” and I don’t blame you. But I will say, be careful of that decision, because we could, as I’ve said for weeks, look like we did in 1900. Don’t say no that you won’t leave yet, but do let the Governor know what happened to you on our highways. It is unconscionable how our people were treated and I expect the State of Texas to make the necessary changes and to make them as soon as possible. All of the assurances that I was given, as Mayor, by the State of Texas, failed. They failed me and they failed the citizens of this great state. Again, I will apologize to the Galveston Island citizens who were put through the hell that they were put through. But I will not accept the blame from those of you who went through that hell for what happened to you on a highway. I had no control over it, no one in this city had any control over it and I trust, actually, I expect the Governor of the State of Texas to make the changes necessary so that this never, ever happens again.

When our people arrived in Huntsville, Texas with assurances from me and others that they were going to have shelter, “you can’t stop here, you gotta keep going.” They went to the next town, Centerville, “you can’t stop here.” “Well,” says the bus driver, “can we let out people off so they can go to the bathroom and have a drink of water?” State officials said, “no, you can’t get off the buses, you gotta keep going.” This is a matter of record from the committed men and women who drove our buses to Huntsville, Texas. We were shuffled from Huntsville to Sam Houston State College, to Buffalo, to Centerville and finally the buses (12 buses) that had been on the road close to two days, ended up in a town called Fairfield, Texas where they asked someone for help and the county Sheriff there said, “you need go no further.” They took our people in. They sent two people to the hospital who needed dialysis. Fairfield did not expect us and we didn’t expect to be in Fairfield but here we were. Because of that, Mr. LeBlanc and I, yesterday, spoke with the City Manager in Fairfield, Texas, and later today I will speak with the Mayor, and we are asking the City of Fairfield to let the City of Galveston set up our own shelters for approximately three thousand Galvestonians in case we ever have to leave again.

The Galveston Housing Authority, lead by Sharon Strain, did exactly what we are going to do. Sharon Strain and the Galveston Housing Authority, arranged for their own shelters in Bryan-College Station. The Galveston Housing Authority personnel manned those facilities, took care of their own. They went on our buses and our buses brought them back. Ladies and gentlemen, the City of Galveston is going to do the very same thing because I am not going to put our citizens in harms way again.

What bothers me in all this, is Mayor Thomas is speaking for the 3,000. There were around 50,OOO evacueee, who didn't take the buses and had just as miserable of a time. The city and the state neeed to take into concideration those who are leaving with their own transportation. Many of these people not only had no specific place to go, but couldn't get there.

posted by Liberty @ 12:54 PM