'A no-win situation'

A Houston family fleeing the hurricane went 18 miles in 11 hours today -- then gave up and went home. The return trip took 16 minutes.

Several factors played into the decision: that other people were overheating and their cars slowed traffic even more, that the mayor said on the radio the clogged roads could be a death trap in a storm, and most important that it appeared Houston would be on the clean side of Hurricane Rita.

"There was no sign of relief," said Riddle. "People were going to the bathroom on the side of the road, walking their dogs, doing what they had to do."

Meanwhile Badger carries a report from other refugees:

There is a line just to get into the Randalls (supermarket), which closes at 5pm today. The gas station premises are crowded with broken-down or out of gas cars. mark says the stench is unbelievable, of human urine everywhere outside the gas station and of animal poop. There is trash everywhere, dirty diapers, stuff blowing around. People are starting to just drive onto the grass and sort of camp out, maybe conserving gas and hoping to wait for the sun to go down and extra lanes to open. (Unfortunately the extra lanes probably won't be opened.)

"It's so gross, all you could smell was urine. Human urine. These aren't poor people, you can't blame it on anyone. People think they are above it. But they're not. This is the human condition. It is not 'Them,' it's us. This is what happens when you don't have food or water or clothing or shelter. It gets bad real fast."

A quarter of a mile away there's some guys on the golf course playing golf.

Here is the NASA page on Rita. Here is a page of Houston traffic cams so you can get a load of the jam. And this Flickr page has several pix from phone cams of people stuck in the jam.

Just by comparison (2000 census):

New Orleans: pop.   484,674
Houston: pop. 1,953,631