Small-town traffic cams to help in evacuations

Houston's getting some help from small towns in its hurricane evacuation plan by linking regional traffic cameras to the TranStar traffic management system. Feeds from the little towns will factor into the regional evacuation plan in case we have to leave town again — allowing evacuees to see where traffic backups are and letting officials keep an eye on contraflow lanes, recommended detours and other plans.

"Depending on how much traffic we're trying to move, if we can see that traffic is now running at good speeds in Columbus, that may help you make a decision as to whether you terminate a contra flow operation, perhaps at that time," said Janelle Gbur, Texas Department of Transportation.

During the Rita evacuation last year, officials were able to keep an eye on city traffic using the network of TranStar cameras, but when it came to how things were going in the outlying counties, they really had no idea. "It's critically important," Mayor Bill White told KHOU. "The police chief himself had to go up in a helicopter and radio back to me." The feed from the regional cams will be still pictures rather than live video, but still, we hope it helps.

As an added non-hurricane attraction, TranStar plans to put regional camera images on its website so you can check out what's happening in, say, Buna even when you're not running for your life. We can't wait.