It's lonely on city's hurricane evacuation list

Despite an offer from the city to evacuate people for free in case of a hurricane, only 800 people have registered for the service so far — about 3 percent of the 25,000 Houstonians who asked for transportation during the Rita evacuation last year.

Mayor Bill White announced the city's evacuation registry, which is aimed at people with medical disabilities or transportation needs, in early February. The sign-up deadline was set for March 30, but only a fraction of the people expected to add their names to the list actually did so, and officials aren't sure why:

“It is really hard to gauge. We would have wanted more,” said [Houston Emergency Management's Joe] Laud.

The city isn’t sure why people haven’t signed up. One theory is that some may not consider themselves in need of help until it is too late.

Despite the deadline, the city is hoping people will still sign up.

Ah, one of those deadlines. The city began compiling the list more than a year ago, though, so we guess the March 30 deadline was sort of arbitrary anyway — sounds like the registry is an ongoing project. You can add your name to the list at 713.884.4500 or www.houstontx.gov/oem.