The absurdity of the fact that there was no provision to ensure gasoline supplies to motorists along the clogged evacuation routes was just the tip of the iceberg. It is not a matter of individuals’ panic or ill-will but partly the lack of centralized planning and partly just the nature of things. Large cities are located at unique geographic points — that is why their precursor settlements were sited there in the first place — which often translate into bottlenecks even in a normal rush hour, not to mention a mass evacuation.

Prepearedness is not the issue. In fact, if anything, it appears to me that part of the problem in the Texas evacuation resulted from overpreparedness. Not only was there several days’ notice of where Rita was headed and approximately how strong it would be but people were more obedient than they would otherwise be to directives to evacuate because of the memory of Katrina. In most of the disasters that will call for mass evacuation, even with disaster authorites operating effectively, that combination of circumstances is not likely to recur.