But ... but didn't right-wingers tell us that escaping a hurricane was easy if your elected officials weren't Democrats and you had a sense of personal responsibility and lived in an area where the average rate of melanin wasn't too high?

Leaving Houston? Good luck

Sixteen hours to San Antonio and Dallas. Eleven hours to Austin. With over a million people trying to flee vulnerable parts of the Houston area, Hurricane Rita has already become a nightmare even for those who left last night....

Gary and Sunni Markowitz left Bellaire at 5:30 a.m. today but after six hours were only 20 miles into their trip to Austin.

With three children and a nanny in tow, they had run through three DVDs and all the snacks in the minivan. Their two-year-old was crying. A friend who was following them in another car with two children had already turned around for home, and they were seriously thinking about it themselves.

When she hit the Crosstimbers exit, she gave up and headed back.

"I guess we should have left Monday,'' she said....

Some are already saying, however, that the evacuation didn't have to be this bad. 

Houston City Councilman M.J. Kahn wondered today why the Texas Department of Transportation didn't reverse the traffic flow on freeways when the evacuation order was given Tuesday. Once inbound lanes of I-45 were turned into outbound lanes today, traffic quickly speeded up. 

"Why wasn't TxDot on the same page?" he asked.... 

Officials in coastal counties south of Houston were questioning why Houston called for such an early  mandatory evacuation of its residents in Clear Lake and east side neighborhoods along the Ship Channel. By beginning evacuations on Wednesday, said Brazoria County Judge John Willy, more vulnerable coastal residents were prevented from making a quick exodus through Houston and to their shelters further inland....

The crush of people seeking to get out of Hurricane Rita's path, however, spurred Greyhound Bus Lines to halt ticket sales at its main Houston terminal today.

"Too many people are showing up,'' said company spokesman Eric Wesley in Dallas. "We want people to know that they shouldn't come to the terminal to buy a ticket. There's no more room on the buses.''...

--Houston Chronicle/wire services

...gas shortages were reported Thursday as hundreds of thousands of people in the Houston metropolitan area rushed to get out of the path of Hurricane Rita, a monster storm with 165 mph winds....

Service stations reported running out of gasoline, and police officers along the highways carried gas to motorists who ran out. Texas authorities also asked the Pentagon for help in getting gasoline to drivers stuck in traffic....

--AP