Hey I'd like to know if anyone is doing this already. There could be an organization dedicated to transport, it could be called The Peoples' Bus, and it's all about people getting together to coordinate this ungodly transportation disaster.
What would it take? Folks getting organized on the ground, at that spot on I-10, for example, if people are still there, they could get organized and make signs and start having people organized as to where they wanted to travel to. Some people might categorize themselves as being willing to travel wherever it is they can find shelter. Do this at the locations of refugees, the new refugee centers in Houston, too.
Maybe it could be coordinated somewhat on an internet site, posting needs and such. And posting shelters and free accomodations and the like, for example, Mt. Zion church could post that they have 50 beds in the church hall, and 14 private homes providing an additional 42 beds. Then volunteers could post, figure out who was closest, and say "I have five seats in my car, I will bring that many," , or with luck a couple of buses could get 92 people at once - and so on until the bed spaces are pledged to match. Granted, this requires some operational communication device, and perhaps a second-party who takes a volunteer's phone calls and posts them on the internet.
Folks could donate gas ca$h, which could be reimbursed to volunteers that don't strictly have the kind of gas money to be driving. Say for example you drive some folks to an elementary school donating their gymnasium to shelter folks, well what you want to do is have the school have already solicited donations to contribute to your next couple tanks of gas. You also want to have some resources such as water with you at all times, you want a working phone on you
It would all be called The Peoples' Bus, you could paint a sign on your automobile, or donated church or school yellow bus or greyhound-type accommodating bus. The sign would mean it's kindly and free volunteer transport.
Quite likely somebody is doing this already, nay?
Speaking of website coordination, there are sites up to help people find lost loved ones. This particular site looks like it has a lot of good hurricane help links:
http://http://www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/PublicSafety/Hurricane_Katrina_Recovery.shtml#vgn-finding-loved-ones-vgn