Escape from Toronto (in a storm)

While watching CNN describe the hurricane hitting Jamaica, and the comparisons to hurricane Rita and Katrina, problems getting people out of the way of the storm was brought up several times. Now in Jamaica, and previously during Katrina, the people who could not get out of the way of the storm, the people hit hardest, were those who did not have their own means of transportation. Those who relied on public transit. Those too poor to afford a car. In Katrina and Rita, many of those people perished waiting in vain for someone, anyone to get them out. But nobody came for them.

As Toronto tries to push a vision of a car-less city, it becomes scarier and scarier to visualize what will happen if disaster is imminent here. The streetcars will of course be of little value in getting people out of the city. They will in fact block streets where they are abandoned. The entire fleet of 1,500 TTC busses carrying 50 people each will barely be able to evacuate TTC and city employees, never mind the other 2 million of us. And during Katrina, we saw busses heading out of the city, but heard that drivers, understandably, refused to return.

Wonder what our Plan B is?