The first meeting of Governor Rick Perry's Task Force on Evacuation and Logistics was held this morning at the Hilton Americas Hotel in downtown Houston.

"We are not here just to handle evacuation needs for this area, but also evacuation needs that might occur in other parts of the state" said Jack Little, the chair of the task force. 

Several elected officials in the Gulf Coast Region addressed the task force.

"It is critically important that the citizens of this community know that their public leaders are dedicated to providing them with the information to get out of harm's way," said Houston Mayor Bill White.  Listen  

"Nothing good happens when hurricanes hit and people should be 'better safe than sorry'," White said.  "We are extremely proud in this state, and in this region especially, of the courtesy, the decency and respect the citizens showed to each other in assisting each other in many untold ways at a time when the storm was aiming at this region."

"Governor Perry's office put together an evacuation plan through the Division of Emergency Management that I believe was much improved from previous planning, and a lot of effort has gone into it," said Harris County Judge Robert Eckels.  "But, we learned in Hurricane Rita some things that need to be done to improve that plan."  Listen

Eckels said the plan was successful in that residents in the coastal areas successfully evacuated to avoid being stranded by the storm surge, but he recognized that many of the evacuees were stranded in traffic.

"While there is going to be some highway capacity issues that I know that you all will address, I think that the main thing that needs to be focused on is better managing the resources that we have out there today," said Shoreacres Mayor Nancy Edmondson.  "It could take 20 years to build the additional capacity we might need to move the number of people that we attempted to move, and we might have another hurricane next year." Listen

Edmondson said some residents of Shoreacres attempted to evacuate, but they turned around when they could not move through Houston.

Bayou Vista Mayor Bill Jackson was critical of the limited number of evacuation routes in the state-mandated plan.

"It is almost impossible to drain a very large water tank with three or four small water pipes in a very fast way," Jackson said.  "If you are going to want to drain a large water tank in a very fast way, you have got to use a lot of small pipes.  There are an awful lot of state highways and farm and ranch roads that were not utilized."

"There are only seven months between now and the next hurricane season," said Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas.  "Time is of the essence"   Listen

Thomas said the task force must address a major tranportation issue. 

"I have learned in the last few days that TxDOT was not included in some of the planning; the Department of Public Safety did not have enough men along the roads to help us," Thomas said.  "The coastal cities must be allowed to evacuate first, and as far as Galveston is concerned, we are asking for escorts through the city of Houston for our buses and our EMS who are taking our folks to safety."

"We need to really do a better job of educating our public," said Kemah City Administrator Bill Kerber, who accompanied Mayor Greg Collins to the meeting.  "I believe that the quote 'run from the water and hide from the wind' is something that we have got to let those people know."  Listen

"There is a lot of work to be done here; it is a multi-faceted problem," said Bill King, former mayor of Kemah and a member of the task force who was instrumental in convincing Governor Perry that a plan should be developed.  "There are dramatic improvements that can be made between now and next year."  Listen

Photos and additional audio excerpts will be posted on The Online News Station.

Additional meetings of the task force will be held in Dallas, San Antonio, Jefferson County, Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley.