Rita's Gone to Houston

Another month, another major U.S. city being poorly evacuated. Rita is a large hurricane unfortunately shaped like a dong. No, seriously. Check it out:



Regrettably, unlike the enormous phalluses you typically see in South Florida, this one's not attached to a man performing a selection of Cher tunes in a sequined peacock outfit. It's attached to 100 mph winds.

And Rita is bringing with it a path of destruction not entirely unfamiliar to residents of the lower half of the United States circa 2005. So, naturally, everyone Houston and nearby areas likely to be affected by Lovely Rita want to get the hell out of Dodge. Wouldn't you?

And once again, we see that no one in charge of this country, or any small portion of this country, has any fucking clue what they are doing. Seriously. It's ridiculous. We're slower at getting people out of harm's way than a special-needs preschool on Fire Drill Day. We have a harder time with evacuations than Tom Arnold after a 12-pack of Old Milwaukee and four trips to an all-you-can-eat Seafood Buffet.

Oooohhh...is that last one too much?

Anyway, I hereby promise not to complain about traffic in Los Angeles for at least a week. Here's the scene right now in the Lone Star State.



Don't mess with Texas. Also, don't drive on the roads when there's a natural disaster en route.



Seriously, I don't mean to make fun. If Rita hits and it's as bad as Katrina, granted, the whole "levee breaking" thing isn't an issue because Houston is on higher ground than NOLA, but we'll still see a pretty major humanitarian crisis. And these people can't even get out of the city. Their cars are stalling out or running out of gas on the roads.

From CNN.com:

Gas stations along some of the major roads out of Houston and Beaumont, to the east, were running low on gas, said Steven McCraw, director of the governor's division of emergency management.

Some Houston residents tried various routes out of the city only to become so flustered they returned home and thought about riding out the storm. Other Texans on gridlocked roads pushed their cars to help conserve fuel.

And ATM's and check-cashing places are running out of money, so people don't have the means to actually leave the city. Unbelievable. Hopefully, Rita won't be a Category 5 Hurricane once it hits mainland, or people remaining behind in Houston are going to be in for a world of trouble. My prayers would be with them, if I believed in prayers, but I don't. So...best of luck, everyone.

One more photo before I go...Just had to include this, because when have you ever seen a photo of people desperately trying to cross the border...into Mexico?