As Tropical Storm Harvey barreled toward the Gulf Coast, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urged residents of coastal and low-lying areas to evacuate and head to higher ground.

No one could know how bad the flooding would be, he said, and it wasn’t worth taking the risk.

“Even if an evacuation order hasn’t been issued by your local official… you need to strongly consider evacuating," Abbott said Friday. “You don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you could be subject to a search and rescue.”

Abbott’s evacuation plea was in direct contradiction with local officials, who for days had been urging Houston to remain calm and stay at home. Some invoked the deadly traffic jams of Hurricane Rita in 2005 to remind residents that fleeing could be more fatal than staying home.

As floodwaters rose, leaving residents trapped on upper floors or waving sheets from rooftops, Houston officials have been repeatedly forced to defend their decision, as critics questioned whether it was the right one.

“You literally cannot put 6.5 million [people] on the road,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said when asked again Sunday about whether the city should have evacuated. “If you think the situation right now is bad — you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare.

Why didn't Houston evacuate before Harvey? It's not that simple
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Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

John Lubbock