Should Mayor Turner have declared a mandatory evacuation?

[Don T. Lukbak]

The Mayor has exhibited plusgood leadership throughout the booger. Not sure about the curfew but otherwise mighty fine. I've seen some crap comparing him with Ray Nagin; Turner's nothing like that prick.

[bigwill832]

I agree with all the reasons I see on here for him not doing it. Hell, if he had put out the order to evacuate and the storm didn't do what it did, he would be getting hammered for scaring the population and making a bad decision. All they can do is predict what is going to happen. There were no promises of what exactly was going to happen and where.

[spear89]

I think over all Turner did a good job, He didn't tell people to stay put, he said if you were not threatened, then stay put. But people have to make their own decision.

During the crises he was on TV constantly and he did what any leader should, he tried to show calm. I didn't vote for him but I thought he was good in the crises.

[otterfix]

the mayor made the right call. it's easy to second guess him from sidelines but as many here have posted, far more would have died trying to get out of this city in a panic mode.

[rayg07]

There was no reason for Houston to evacuate because it was established that the Corpus area was goona get the eye of the hurricane. Had it been predicted to come to Galveston then that would have been a different story. We would have been boarding up and been more prepared individually because we are usually concerned about high winds during these times. Also usually these hurricanes continue north. This one didn't and that made all the difference. This was just an unfortunate series of events for us and we got caught with our pants down. But unfortunately there will be more suffering for families impacted by this because now these families are gonna get really screwed by these insurance companies. I promise you this will be the next chapter in this mess.

[HoustonHobbyist25]

Monday Morning QBs will forever insist they could do it better. I'm hard pressed to name a mayor or governor, in the wake of an equivalent natural disaster, who has performed as well.

Power largely stayed on. Water stayed on. Resivours held. Fatality was minimized.

This was a $190B disaster. I-10 was underwater two days ago, but it's Thursday and I'm already stuck in traffic like nothing happened. I've never been prouder to be a Houstonian.

[Trey]

I was happy to hear him say Houston is open for business! Hell yeah, we still here. I'm ready to get back to work myself. I'm off till Tuesday.

[Don T. Lukbak]

Maybe now he can catch up on his sleep; the poor bastard looked very extremely sleep deprived in some of his pictures. Good job, Mayor Turner, ... and Judge Emmett, and Chief Acevedo and the Popos, the list is long.

[GlobeSpotter]

Originally Posted by gnadfly

I've never been a fan of Sylvester Turner.....

Who is Sylvester Turner?

[kerwil62]

Originally Posted by Trey

I was happy to hear him say Houston is open for business!

Not quite open for business. At least not 100%. He needs to lift that damn curfew.

[dearhunter]

Where exactly were 6 million retards supposed to evacuate to?

[the fatman]

So far most of the dead are pulled from their cars and bayous. The mayor made the right call. What I wish he would've done is evacuate those areas that have flooded recently. My heart breaks for that family that died in the van. Terrible decision by the grownups to get on the road during the storm.

[GlobeSpotter]

I left to go to south texas as the eye hit and told the family not to leave the fuckin house whatsover. and then showed them where the ladders are.

[Trey]

Originally Posted by kerwil62

Not quite open for business. At least not 100%. He needs to lift that damn curfew.

I disagree on lifting it. I would keep it for another week at least. Why you want it lifted so bad? You prowling the streets 12-5 brother K? I think I'm getting old only reason I'm up at that time now is work, or im going fishing.

[NMEufdaST8]

The unpopular truth: Houston metro's widely hated and much maligned sprawl and development performed better than even the most optimistic would have dreamed.

Last I checked yesterday, the meteorology types were putting this rain event at a statistical recurrence of roughly once every 10,000 - 20,000 years.

HCAD currently estimates that about 10% of property tax assessed structures took water. Prior experience suggests most will be repaired.

Fatalities are trending to come in at a few dozen for the metro area, out of 6.5 million people. If we get to 48, that would be 0.000007%.

All of the doom-saying, hyperventilating, finger wagging, lecturing, and head shaking about over development, climate change, and poor urban planning would have had us believe that a 10,000 - 20,000 year event would have killed far, far more and destroyed much, much more. That didn't happen.

Don't get me wrong: this is horrible suffering right now. Bad shit went down. Mistakes were made and some things can and should be improved.

But the truth that doesn't attract clicks or promote Luddite agendas is this: Houston passed this test with flying colors.

Mayor Turner has done well. He has kept calm, made sound and defensible decisions, and made no glaring mistakes. He gets an A+.