So Rick Perry is Upset. Maybe these folks remember his "on air" performance during the Evacuation !

County leaders oppose Perry's hurricane planning orders
They want committee to determine when to evacuate.
By Paul J. Weber
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, April 19, 2006

HOUSTON — Counties that were saddled with chaos and traffic-choked highways before Hurricane Rita are defying an order from Gov. Rick Perry to empower one person to make evacuation decisions during a disaster.
Instead, a group of elected Gulf Coast leaders adopted a different plan Tuesday that puts the authority in the hands of a 15-person committee, even though the ultimate power to evacuate still rests with individual counties.
Houston Mayor Bill White was among more than two dozen government executives from a 13-county region surrounding Houston who unanimously approved the creation of the Unified Area Coordination Committee.
During a hurricane, the committee would make decisions such as how to stagger evacuations and when to allow traffic on clogged highways to flow differently.
County officials have said that appointing one incident commander, as instructed by Perry's order last month, for a region spanning 12,500 miles is impractical and welcomes uninformed decisions.
Elected officials from Coastal Bend counties also have opposed the order.
But Perry, who made the order after about 60 people died when more than 1.5 million people tried to evacuate the Houston area in September, was upset that officials in the state's most vulnerable hurricane region ignored his command.
"'I think it makes abundant good sense in those grand, large situations like that to have one individual being able to make a decision on the evacuation of an entire region," Perry said Tuesday from Austin. "I think that is fraught with danger to put into place a committee, and hopefully they will reconsider that."
That wasn't the indication after Tuesday's meeting of the Houston-Galveston Area Council. Jack Steele, the council's executive director, said he would proceed "right away" with the committee because the hurricane season begins June 1.
Under the Texas Disaster Act adopted in 1975, executive orders issued by the governor "have the force and effect of law." Perry spokeswoman Rachel Novier said that for now, the governor will continue to work with the region.
Steele said the formation of the committee will begin immediately. Each county judge will appoint one member, with the other two decided by White and Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas.
Counties aren't required to obey the committee during a disaster, but backers of the plan don't expect officials to defiantly call their own shots during a hurricane.
"What elected official is going to take the responsibility of not cooperating and causing the evacuation to collapse?" asked former Kemah Mayor Bill King, who served on the governor's hurricane task force. "I just can't see that happening."
Not everyone is so sure. The mayor of Taylor Lake Village, a community of about 4,000 people that sits off the Gulf of Mexico and is surrounded by water on three sides, wondered whether the committee would be knowledgeable enough about her town's situation.
"If I'm told it's not my turn to evacuate, and I believe it is my turn to evacuate, I'm going to evacuate my city," O'Neill said. "I'm not going to wait."
According to a report released Tuesday, Texas should also develop a way to track special-needs patients during evacuations, ensure that their medical records are sent with them and let emergency responders know which hospitals and shelters have room for them.
The report, commissioned by the Texas Department of State Health Services, found communication breakdowns and difficulties acquiring, tracking and deploying resources hindered the effort to care for hurricane victims and evacuees.
Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, commissioner of state health services, said his department will use the recommendations to improve its plans.
source:http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/19hurricane.html