save your gas and time...

http://www.click2houston.com/news/17487728/detail.html

GALVESTON -- Galveston officials suspended the "Look and Leave" program for the island, effectively immediately, hours after it began, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.

Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas initiated the program at noon to allow residents and business owners go back to the island city to see their damage firsthand.

However, the program was suspended indefinitely shortly before 6 p.m.

Officials said a news conference will be held Wednesday at noon to elaborate.

"The city of Galveston is in a dilemma," City Manager Steve LeBlanc said. "We really can't support the public coming back. At the same time the public wants to come back to check out what's happened to their property and that is why we have the look and leave policy."

During the initial "look and leave" program, residents, business owners and insurance agents were allowed to visit the island between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Those who remained on the island past 6 p.m. would be fined $2,000.

Credentials were checked at the base of the causeway. Anyone entering the island must show their driver's license or a water bill as proof they reside on the island or photo identification that shows employment on the island or with an insurance company.

The city does not have any medical facilities available. The island does not have water, sewer, electricity or natural gas. There is no fuel or fuel available and no retail stores are open. There are also no auto or tire repair services.

"We have no cell phone service. We have no satellite service. We have no Internet," Thomas said.

Thomas said she relayed her concerns to President George W. Bush when he toured the area on Tuesday and he made it a priority to have communications restored.

The state is providing transportation for residents who rode out the storm on the island and want to leave. Anyone wanting to leave can go to the island community center to register and sign up for transitional housing.

They should announce the "look and leave" a day or two BEFORE the event to give people time to prepare. If they had said "6AM the morning of X, we will allow people with proper credentials on the island for one day," it would have worked better.

But to announce it the morning of the event made for a mass cluster-fuukk.

City officials obviously didn't put any thought into this. No provision for a lane restricted to emergency vehicles??? WTF??? They should have announced it a day earlier and restricted access to first letter of the last name. Wed A-G, Thu H-M, etc.

Or even divide the days into blocked sections of town (east of 15th, south of Broadway on Monday, 15th to 30th on Tuesday, etc....) It would be easy to direct the flow of traffic into one specific area at a time (outlying streets coned off), alleviates the need to concern with LL getting in the way of clean up/recovery efforts (by not meandering about town) and the # of visitors at a given time could be controlled (appx x # of evacuated residents live in today's LL area to be expected in)

Section by section the island could be covered in an orderly and timely fashion. It really isn't that difficult to implement some assemblance of a plan other than a cluster f*** is it? Sheesh.

I just hope people get the word before tomm when I have to go to work down there!!!

Totally a tangent, but Vern are you from Nederland?

I am not, I grew up in Jersey Village and live in Katy now.

Gotcha, different Vern.

Dude disappeared on us.