Galveston mayor announces voluntary evacuation

12:26 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 20, 2005

From 11 News Staff Reports & The Daily News

Click to watch Janice Williamson's 5pm report

GALVESTON -- Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas announced a voluntary evacuation of the island beginning Tuesday at 2 p.m.

AP

The island has been told to expect a Category 3 storm, but officials are preparing for a Category 4 -- just in case.

Current projections say Texas is the most likely target of Rita after it brushes past Florida.

"The forecast takes it into the Gulf of Mexico ... the storm could easly strengthen into a major hurricane," says 11 News meteorologist David Paul. "The best guess right now from the Hurricane Center takes the storm right into the Galveston area."

For the first time, city and county leaders have the authority to call for a mandatory evacuation if it becomes necessary.

"Folks, we've been down this road before. There's no need to panic," said Galveston County Judge Jim Yarborough. "Obviously, it's heightened a little bit with the aftermath of Katrina. Nobody wants to make a mistake."

Buses will be provided for Galveston residents who need transportation off the island beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

"The City of Galveston has arranged for approximately 80 buses to help evacuate our citizens who depend upon public transportation," said Mayor Thomas.

The buses will leave from the community center in the 4700 block of Broadway and head to shelters in Huntsville.

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Evacuees will be allowed to carry one suitcase and their pets on the buses, but the pets must be in carriers or crates. Pet owners should call 409-763-8477 if they need a cage or crate.

The mayor urges island residents on prescription medication or who are undergoing treatment to make advance preparations.

"I'm urging citizens to do the following: If you are on medication, please call your physician and ask for a 3-month supply...; you may also ask for your treatment plan if you're on chemotherapy, dialysis, any of those kinds of consistent treatments; please take your valuables, any deeds to your properties, any insurance information...," said Mayor Thomas.

The number to call for more information on the evacuation is 409-797-3710. Anyone who needs to ride a bus, should call that number to alert the city.

The latest tracking map has Freeport as the most likely spot for landfall around 7 a.m. Saturday.

Paul said Rita could become "a Category 3 or better, winds of 111 miles an hour or better" as it moves over the warm Gulf waters.

"All of the ingredients are there for the storm to strengthen as it moves across the Gulf of Mexico," he said. "This would be a big storm for us. This would be a bad scenario..."

Galveston County leaders thought they had a good evacuation plan — until Aug. 28.

That’s when Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi, leaving tens of thousands to wait, in miserable conditions, to be rescued. An untold number of people died.

Some of the stranded were simply stubborn. But many were either too poor, too sick or too old to get out.

With no barrier islands or coastal marshes to protect it, Galveston is perhaps even more vulnerable to a hurricane than many of the areas devastated by Katrina.

“We’re concerned about the elderly who couldn’t evacuate New Orleans,” said Stephanie Arabie, a Galveston resident who is from Lafayette, La. “We have a lot of elderly neighbors.”

And some locals are wondering whether they’ll be able to escape such a storm themselves.

“I get scared every time there’s a hurricane out there,” Sandra Jaquo said.

She lives at 33rd Street and Avenue N with her son, Darren Jaquo. Darren, 38, is disabled after a swimming accident.

The city is making provisions for residents who can’t make it to Island Community Center, 4700 Broadway.

To register to be picked up, call (409) 797-3510.

But that won't work for everybody.

Michael Worthy, director of Island Transit, said the service’s handicapped buses would be used to evacuate disabled residents.

But Darren Jaquo is too disabled to ride.

“They don’t have means for people who can’t walk,” his mother said.

To find the means, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas has created the Citizens Response Team.

Stan Blazyk, a retired University of Texas Medical Branch social worker, and Jim Hale, a retired director of mental health services in Harris County, head it. Hale is also the husband of Galveston Independent School District Superintendent Lynn Hale.

FILE

The team wants to identify residents who need help evacuating so that the city can make plans to get them out.

That is especially true of residents like Sandra Jaquo and her son, Jim Hale said.

“We’re going to do whatever it takes,” he said. “We’re going to get them out.”

Residents with special needs can register with the response team by calling 409-797-3510.

To volunteer for the team, call the same number.

But the city is not just waiting for residents to come to it. The response team is also seeking out those who might need help.

If not enough people register, Thomas said the city would go door-to-door looking for people.

Galveston County is also undertaking an ambitious effort to build a countywide database that will assist residents with special needs before they evacuate and after they reach a shelter.

“If we can get them into the database, we can get them out,” County Judge Jim Yarbrough said.

The database will compile special medical needs, such as oxygen tanks and walkers, so they’ll be available when residents reach shelters.

The county had planned to have residents call 2-1-1 to register.

But Elliott Jennings, the county’s emergency management director, on Friday said that service was overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands of Katrina victims in the state seeking services.

Jennings said the county would soon announce how county residents could register with the service.

Yarbrough said the plan for the database should be completed in about a month.

“We should have a pretty wide net cast by the end of the year,” he said.