Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said in her press conference this afternoon that she estimated that 40 percent of isalnd residents — maybe 20,000 or so people — chose to ignore the mandatory evacuation order.
She didn’t really elaborate on how she came up with that statistic, but that is pretty amazing if true.
Twenty-thousand stuck on the island? What are these people thinking?
The storm is only now coming onshore. Let’s hope these (idiots?) made the right decision.
— Richard Connelly
This article appears in Sep 11-17, 2008.