The work of that commission became the basis for new evacuation plans that proved reasonably effective for the Hurricane Ike evacuation in 2008. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. But flooding from rainfall is highly unpredictable and variable based on the dynamics of each particular rain event. Had a general evacuation been called, 90 percent of the people would have evacuated for no reason. But second-guessing or speculating that Mayor Turner and other local officials should have called for mandatory evacuations is nonsense and betrays a fundamental ignorance of evacuation dynamics.

Source: New York Times August 28, 2017 23:37 UTC