Rita from Ground Zero

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About Rita from Ground Zero

PREFACE:
Contributions are welcome but please avoid redundant, unrelated or poor quality images. Please include descriptive titles or text with all images -- when, where and what is being shown. The Admin reserves all rights to manage the content of this group.

GROUP DESCRIPTION:
Coverage and witness reports from those of us stranded (or choosing to stay) in the path of hurricane Rita... All are welcome to contribute photos from the affected areas of Texas and Louisiana as well as using this group for discussions related to Rita. I will contribute updates as long as communications are available.

HEAR THESE WORDS: Despite all of the posturing by politicians and "happy talk" by the idiot talking heads on TV, there are unknown thousands of southeast Texas residents who CANNOT evacuate due to gasoline outages -- I personally spent most of yesterday attempting to leave Houston, only to get EIGHT MILES NORTH OF I-10 before deciding to return home and take my chances... I would much rather have a roof over my head than be sitting stranded and out of gas on the side of a highway when the hurricane hits.

Government officials have been promising gasoline for the last 24 hours and we have seen nothing. They have promised to rescue those stranded on the roadways but are not considering the smaller highways and alternate routes -- all of which are just as congested -- who will help them? Exactly what shelters will these people be taken to? Why did FEMA resuppply a busload of elderly nursing home residents with oxygen bottles and leave them on the roadside to die when they exploded? These poor, helpless people had been traveling on a bus ALL DAY LONG.

Houston and Texas officials have repeatedly boasted how they are much better prepared than New Orleans -- now they're saying that crowded highways and limited gasoline supplies were "not part of the plan." THESE PEOPLE ARE ALL LYING THROUGH THEIR TEETH AND TAKING EVERY POSSIBLE MEASURE TO WHITEWASH THIS SITUATION AND WASH THEIR HANDS OF ANY RESPONSIBILITY BY CLAIMING THAT PEOPLE WAITED TOO LATE TO EVACUATE, ETC.!

You may ask "Why in the world would a sane, intelligent person turn back to wait in the path of this storm?" Well, everyone has to make their own decisions... My wife is a diabetic who has had 3 back surgeries in the past 15 months. We used a half a tank of gas attempting to evacuate before turning back. This has been the experience of MANY people we know. THERE IS NO GAS AVAILABLE. Spending 24-36 hours traveling, having no place to stay or sitting on the roadside, like so many people we're seeing on TV, is completely unacceptable.


Please note that these opinions are only those of the group founder and may not reflect those of other members and contributors -- these observations are based purely upon my own personal experiences...