The story Nobody's Telling - Evacuating Houston via IAH

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Adam Weiss - 27 Sep 2005 07:23 GMT

For all the news of people spending 14 hours in their cars driving out
of Houston last week, nobody's talking about the situation at the "Big
Airport" (IAH) during the evacuation.

I had the fortune of flying out of Houston early Thursday, in advance of
the expected landfall of Hurricane Rita. So let me give my few cents -
from the standpoint of a passenger.

Traffic around the aiport was managed as normal. Parking was a breeze.
The gate areas were calm and as quiet as they ever are. The planes
were actually not completely full.

But it was all overshadowed by the check in areas.

The severity of it shouldn't be understated. Had those check in areas
at IAH lost power Thursday morning; had they not been able to process
passengers and put them on flights, I've no doubt they would have
quickly descended into the same chaos that reigned the SuperDome during
Katrina. It was that bad.

Lots of people (myself included) gave themselves much more time than
normal to get to the airport. But reaching the aiport was in fact
strikingly easy. At the same time, check in agents arrived at their
usual 5:30 AM. The result was a bottle neck in the check in areas, with
people arriving en-masse to check in at times when they couldn't.

I certainly don't want this to be some irate passenger bitchfest. I'd
want this to be another thing to learn from in the evacuation of major
cities. All in all, IAH management and all their people did a good job
during the evacuation. They only need to fully address the check-in
process for evacuations. It was through a stroke of luck that the
terminals didn't lose power and didn't descend into Superdome style
chaos that morning. Airport management should know that.

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TOliver - 27 Sep 2005 17:11 GMT

"Adam Weiss" wrote...

> But it was all overshadowed by the check in areas.
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> descended into the same chaos that reigned the SuperDome during Katrina.
> It was that bad.

You do understand that...

(A) The check in areas were not going to lose power until the winds from the
hurricane arrived.

(B) Hours before - in this case 12 or so - FLIGHTIOPS would have been
secured; everything able to fly out dispatched either in regular service or
to "safe havens"; incoming flights diverted and passenger operations ceased.
Folks would have had to go back to the parking lots or the shuttles, heading
home or to join the ground exodus.

The contingency which you want to plan for is one that seems quite unlikely
to ever occur. When the power goes off in the terminals, it's "off" except
for battery/generator back ups in the tower, and with the NAVAIDS. There
won't be any loading of a/c or regular operations. No airport waits for
the hurricane's arrival to shut down and secure. IAH and HOU waited about
as late as circumstances would have permitted.

Try DFW some afternoon when a line of thunderstorms sweeps through. Now
there's a couple of hours of unreined chaos a'brew.

TMO

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Adam Weiss - 28 Sep 2005 01:11 GMT

> "Adam Weiss" wrote...
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> (A) The check in areas were not going to lose power until the winds from the
> hurricane arrived.

Point taken. Let me reword my statement (see below).

> (B) Hours before - in this case 12 or so - FLIGHTIOPS would have been
> secured; everything able to fly out dispatched either in regular service or
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> the hurricane's arrival to shut down and secure. IAH and HOU waited about
> as late as circumstances would have permitted.

> TMO

A well managed evacuation preceeds an anticipated natural disaster like
a hurricane by 48 to 72 hours. Using your numbers, an airport being
used for evacuation should be helping people evacuate for all but the
last 12 hours of that time window.

Whether or not airport management wanted it to be used that way, IAH was
used as a means of evacuation by hundreds if not thousands. And with
the exception of the check-in areas things went very smoothly. All I'm
saying is that the airport should step back and look at what can be done
better, particularly in the check-in areas, for the next evacuation.

> Try DFW some afternoon when a line of thunderstorms sweeps through.
> Now there's a couple of hours of unreined chaos a'brew.

I've been stuck in LGA for 9 hours during thunderstorms.

That airport (LGA) is so woefully inadequate even during normal
operations that I shudder to think what would happen if it were relied
upon for evacuations. IAH was comparatively very well run. But as with
any big experience (like the evacuation of Houston last week) lessons
should be learned.

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qquark99@yahoo.com - 28 Sep 2005 19:26 GMT

Reaching IAH on thursday morning was not 'strikingly easy' for most
people. If you were coming into IAH from the south then it was very
very difficult. I left my home in a south eastern suburb at 2:45 pm on
wednesday (sept 21st) and reached the airport only at 6:30 pm. I missed
my 7 pm flght and overnighted in the baggage claim area where I met
many people who had taken 6 hours or more to reach the airport.
However, if you were coming in from the north of the airport there were
no delays. Those who knew the streets of Houston well also encountered
normal traffic getting into IAH. But northbound and westbound highways
were terrible in the vicinity of IAH.

Once inside the airport area things were normal. But at check in it at
continental (Terminal C) was a huge mess. The usual opening of the CO
counters is at 4 am. The OP said 5:30 am is the customary time but
maybe that was for some other airline. I was there at 3:30 am and
there must have been about 600 people in there. At 4 am 2 check-in
agents arrived and there were 4 or 5 by 5 am.
I think CO did an absolutely wonderful job getting people out under the
circumstances. Sure there were frayed tempers and snappy conversations
but considering how hard it was to get to IAH at all I am sure many
staff must have left their homes really early. I want to thank them
all.

BTW, some people paid $60 or more to the skycaps just outside the
terminal and receiveg greatly expedited service. they avoided all the
lines at check in and received their boarding passes in just a few
minutes.

Quark

> (deleted)
> Lots of people (myself included) gave themselves much more time than
> normal to get to the airport. But reaching the aiport was in fact
> strikingly easy. At the same time, check in agents arrived at their
> usual 5:30 AM. The result was a bottle neck in the check in areas, with
> people arriving en-masse to check in at times when they couldn't.

(deleted)

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Travel Forum / Travel Types / Air Travel / September 2005

The story Nobody's Telling - Evacuating Houston via IAH