Local officials get a high grade for the way they worked to get local nursing homes, special needs residents and people without transportation out of the possibility of harm’s way from Hurricane Gustav, even before the storm became a hurricane and before it entered the Gulf of Mexico.

Anyone who was here can remember the situation in advance of the arrival of Hurricane Rita. Roads were jammed. Gasoline supplies ran dry. People had nowhere to go. The lessons from Hurricane Rita were well learned and the new plans seemed to be flawlessly executed. The most delicate among us and those least able to help themselves received the assistance they needed before the situation reached crisis level.

But the regular Joes and their families who evacuated into the path of Hurricane Gustav in East Texas may have a different idea about the need for a mandatory evacuation from their homes in Southeast Texas. When the order for a mandatory evacuation is lifted here, which is anticipated to happen early Tuesday morning, the Piney Woods and Deep East Texas, where thousands of our residents are now housed, are forecast to be under tropical storm conditions.

Emergency management officials are in a difficult situation. To receive the assistance needed to evacuate the special needs people, they must call a mandatory evacuation. But when people hear that a mandatory evacuation has been called, they naturally feel compelled to pack up and move out, even if the storm path is aimes at a landfall hundreds of miles away and the time of arrival is days away.

And if a storm makes a sudden change in direction, plenty of finger-pointing in the direction of emergency management officials could be expected if an evacuation hadn’t been called and a storm suddenly changes direction and comes our way.

One of the best decisions this time was to allow free travel on the roadways. Local officials explained repeatedly that if someone didn’t heed the call to evacuate, they couldn’t be guaranteed services if they suddenly found themselves in need of assistance. But the open roads allowed people to decide for themselves whether to stay away from the area or return to their homes and businesses.

The Sheriff’s Department wisely sent a press release Sunday explaining that this didn’t mean not to report criminal or suspicious behavior. But if the weather had turned bad and local law enforcement officials were busy working for the good of the general public, routine calls may have taken longer to receive a response.

Hurricane Gust was a learning opportunity for many of us. Let’s hope we don’t need to put the lessons into practice for a long time.