Some Dry Run, Governor Perry.

"We don't have to be right every time," he said. "It may not have hit this time, but it may next time."

That was partly a response to worries that the glaring hitches in the evacuation will make people ignore get-out orders next time.

"It's going to be a lot harder to get people to go. And that could cause a loss of life," said Amy Hong, who stayed in Houston with her husband and 6-week-old son and was none the worse for it.

She was upset that authorities have treated the evacuation as a sort of human experiment - a "fascinating" drill, as Perry put it.

"They called it a dry run," said Hong. "That's a lot of people to be practising with."

Darned right, Amy.