More about evacuation woes

About the evacuation from Houston prior to Hurricane Rita,
From
http://www.jems.com/news/14375

Desperate for gas, food and bathrooms, motorists also found themselves becoming sick and dehydrated. Vehicle air conditioners increased fuel consumption and couldn't keep slow moving vehicles cool (some turned off AC to conserve fuel, and those being evacuated on school buses had no AC at all).

It became common to see motorists leaning out their car windows to vomit, often sickened by vehicle exhaust fumes and the odor of accumulating human waste on the roadways.Reports from the region alleged that some motorists were felled by blood clots that occurred as a result of hours of sitting in their vehicles.

When they finally had the opportunity to stand and stretch their legs, stricken people suffered the gamut of thrombi-related maladies sometimes seen in airline passengers after long cross country or international flights: mostly myocardial infarctions, pulmonary emboli and CVAs.Dehydration exacerbated renal and diabetic complications, and geriatric patients deteriorated more rapidly than others during the long wait in traffic.

Many O2-dependent people ran out of oxygen before they reached their destination. One motorist suffered an apparent seizure while evacuating on U.S. Highway 59, around 100 miles north of Houston. His car sideswiped another vehicle before plowing into the grassy median, killing a two-year-old girl whose family had stopped to rest there.