Where Would a Million People Go?
Kevin Felts 08.28.17
As Hurricane Harvey floods the greater Houston area, people are asking, why didn’t Houston evacuate?
Houston has a history of flooding. A thunderstorm that last a full day is enough to flood certain areas. Predictions said Harvey was going to stall. From there, forecasters were not sure what was going to happen. Even if forecasters did not know where Harvey was going after landfall, one thing was for sure, Houston was going to flood.
So, why not call for an evacuation?
The question we need to ask, where are the four million people of Harris county supposed to go? Rather than four million, let’s say one million people needed to evacuate. Where are one million people supposed to find shelter, eat, sleep, and everything else we do in our daily lives.
Hotels are out of the question. The flooding could continue for days; people may be out of their homes for weeks. Chances are, the vast majority of people evacuating can not afford to stay in a hotel for a week, or two weeks, much less pay for their food.
Set up a shelter? We have shelters large enough for a million people? We would need a 1,000 shelters holding 1,000 people each just to house a quarter of the people in Harris county. Dallas is setting up a mega shelter that will house an estimated 5,000 people. To shelter just a quarter of people in Harris County, we would need 200 of these “mega shelters”.
We have not mentioned the people in Galveston, Dickinson, Victoria or all the other places affected by Hurricane Harvey.
Big Picture
Once the flood waters go down, people will go home and start the rebuild process.
Where are millions of people supposed to go when a nuclear device is detonated in a major city? This does not have to be a detonation by a nation such as China or Russia. It could be a terrorist organization that was able to get a nuclear device into a shipping port.
Look at these natural disasters as a test run for a bigger problem. That problem is, when millions of people flee a city and are never able to go back. Where are a million people from New York supposed to go? What about Los Angeles?
Let’s hope there are never multiple nuclear detonations across the nation. If that were to happen, where do two or three million people go?
