After 100 died fleeing Rita, Houston made the right call this time on evacuation

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(Photo: Lee Celano, The (Lafayette, La.) Daily Advertiser, USA TODAY Network)

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Four days after Houston-area officials argued against mandatory evacuations as Hurricane Harvey bore down on the region, more than 2,000 people had to be rescued from rising waters and 30,000 will need shelter. Some residents in low-lying areas, including along the Brazos and Trinity rivers, were told Monday to evacuate.

The catastrophic flooding raised the question of whether Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and others were right in telling people last week to shelter in place. They, after all, were partly contradicted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who recommended that some people consider leaving even if no mandatory order was in place.

The short answer to the question is: Yes, the local officials were correct to not order a mass evacuation.

Evacuation orders typically involve coastal communities of tens of thousands of people. The Houston metro area, the nation’s fourth largest, has 6.6 million. Its roads and rails simply aren’t equipped to handle such a large exodus.

Even if people could get out of town, where would they go? It would be all but impossible to find housing for millions of people, particularly for long periods.

What’s more, the act of evacuation itself can be hazardous. This was the lesson from Hurricane Rita in 2005. In that instance, an estimated 2.5 million people took to the highways heeding an evacuation order. The ensuing gridlock was so severe that waits in traffic of 20 hours or longer were not uncommon.