Managing Risk & Resiliency Planning

What happens when you don’t have a solid plan for extreme weather?

In 2005, just weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Hurricane Rita entered the Gulf of Mexico—this time with Houston in its potential path. Fear spread quickly. Residents, haunted by Katrina’s destruction, rushed to evacuate. Interstate 45 northbound swelled to an astonishing 18 lanes of traffic near The Woodlands.

But what looked like a massive evacuation effort quickly unraveled. Just a few miles ahead, those 18 lanes funneled into a narrow four-lane bridge with no alternate routes. Fuel stations along the way ran dry. Cars stalled. Families became stranded. The evacuation route turned into a gridlocked crisis.

Fortunately for Houston, Rita shifted east and spared the city. However, the chaos left a lasting message: without a well-designed and well-communicated plan, even a known form of extreme weather, such as a hurricane, can escalate into an entirely different risk.