Texas hurricane evacuation plans call for partnership with oil companies | 06.27.2007 | 09:07:12 | Views: 5478 | ID: June 27 '07: When hurricanes threaten Texas coastal communities, evacuations are slowed when motorists run out of gas, only to find that fuel supplies are limited along the designated evacuation routes. To help mitigate gas shortages, Texas Governor Rick Perry implemented a Task Force on Evacuation, Transportation, and Logistics which was developed with the partnership of oil companies Shell, Citgo, Chevron, Valero, ConocoPhilips, Exxon Mobil and Marathon, the Associated Press reported. The Task Force is supervised by former Shell Oil Co. President and CEO Jack E. Little who told the AP that in the state's 200-page evacuation plans, there was no contingency for fuel shortages. "What we know now is there was no fuel plan," Little said. "Every company was on their own. The problem arose when the voluntary evacuation was overlaid on top of the mandatory evacuation and the roads were clogged." Among the "benchmarks" the task force set included: preposition of fully-loaded fuel trucks will help to distribute gasoline before, during and after the evacuation; fuel distribution will move inland two days before storms land; gas stations will no operate with less than half or less fuel in their tanks; highway messaging will alert motorists during hurricane season that they should keep their cars with more than half a tank. Their will not be free fuel during evacuations however. Furthermore, Scott Alley, the Texas Department of Transportation's emergency management coordinator told the AP, "Emergency-assistance vehicles will only give fuel to those who have run out of fuel."
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