Educated by Rita - New York Times

Educated by Rita - New York Times: "If Katrina exposed what happens when many people have no cars to escape danger, Rita seemed to show the other side of the coin. The authorities are going to have to become much more sophisticated about developing evacuation plans that do not put every family on the highway in its own vehicle. But the car-obsessed American public is going to require a lot of education before many will accept the idea that they should flee disaster via mass transit.

Some Rita-related failures seemed inexplicable. A dearth of federal security screeners at Houston's airports led to long lines for the airline passengers trying get out of the city. The Homeland Security Department should have anticipated that problem. Houston's shortage of emergency shelters and the local officials' apparent reluctance to let the public know where space was available were hard to comprehend."