I have a question about hurricane evacuations?

[Kitty 34]

When you get out of the city, where do you go? Hotel? Relatives or are there shelters way inland?


Have any of you ever actually evacuated?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We've done hotel and relatives.

Most in our area (east cost florida) head inland to Orlando or North to Georgia (or SC or NC---some pack up and visit relatives however far away they are). Orlando is the closest city with most hotel space that isn't on the coast. Usually--it is wherever you managed to make a hotel reservation.

I like to be close to home to help secure it so we stay will stay in Florida with relatives if there is a need to evacuate.

 

[floridaminnie]

We evacuated when Charlie was suppose to be a direct hit on Tampa. We are kind of inland and weren't required to evacuate, but I wasn't going to go through another MAJOR hurricane again. We went to Alabama and stayed in a hotel. We looked at where to go to stay outside of the cone.

 

[Hollyann]

Yep! I evacuated with my DD, her DS, our two Dogs to Tennessee for Francis. We got STUCK in Tennessee when the hurricane meandered it's way up there and caused flooding. We stayed with my DD's in-laws, who were GREAT sports - we had 4 dogs there a bunch of kids....whew! What a zoo.

However, if I was facing the current hurricane - I would high-tail it out of there.

My prayers to those facing this one....or any hurricane!

 

[Kermit]

I have family in New Orleans. They're headed out of town with their RV in tow right now. Sometimes they do go stay with family, but since the path of this one isn't really determined right now, they can't, as all the family members close enough could possibly end up being evacuated as well.

 

[Pugdog007]

I evacuated out of New Orleans last year for Ivan and came home to B'ham. Unfortunately it ended up worse here than they ended up getting in N.O. Most coming out of N.O. at that time were headed to Texas - Houston.

 

[MinnieM3]

We evacuated, so to speak, for Hugo, (went north about 100 miles) but that darn storm came right up and tore into the whole state, so we weren't any better off. We went to stay with relatives. Not close relatives, so it felt kinda weird. We came home 2 days later.

For Floyd (the great traffic jam of 1999) we evacuated to a hotel in Augusta, GA.

My plan now is this: if we're in the path of a major storm, I call and make reservations somewhere farther North and over west a bit (like Augusta, GA) for several days and then call and cancel one day at a time if not needed.

I would rather stay at relatives or friends' houses, but they all live here!

Evacuating stinks, especially with kids.

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

I'm a Native Floridian have lived here my entire life, when I was younger and lived in Central Florida we had them but never had to evacuate.

Have been through quite a few now that we live closer to the coast here in North Florida.

We are far enough inland that we have never had or been able to evacuate.

I worked for over 32 years for a major telephone company I couldn't evacute a few times as I was considered Emergency Personal and had to be available for restoration. We had to report to work a few times and ride the storms out there. Never in any danger I was in one of the safest builds in the state. (telephone central office)

I have also been sent into a few devastated areas to help restore service.

 

[disfanatiks]

We lived on the river here in NE FL about six years ago when Floyd (I believe) was expected to hit somewhere along the East Coast of FL. We evacuated and were planning to go to my sister's home in Tallahassee. Nine Hours into the trip and less than 70 miles driven...we heard the storm was not going to hit Jacksonville...We turned around and were home in less than an hour and a half....

It was eerie coming back to town at 1AM in the morning...it was like a ghost town...

 

[Aidensmom]

I live in Tampa, and while not required to evacuate, we have evacuated to relatives homes that we feel are "safer" than ours, though they are not all too far from us. We have a lot of really big trees in our yard, and an older home that was built before current hurricanes specs, so we just feel safer doing so.

 

[LoveWDW]

A friend of mine a little north of New Orleans evacuated this afternoon. They have a Scamp, a small RV, that they use on vacations, so they are used to staying in it. They have reserved a place in a camp ground.

 

[Figment2]

I was visiting friends in Panama City when Opal decided to turn and make a direct hit. We woke up to mandatory evacuation. We were up at 7:00am and on the road by 10:00 (after prepping the house). I have said it many times since then, I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN! Their house is very much inland so the only threat is high winds and/or tornadoes (which I'm used to since our storms here in Chicago seem to be getting worse and worse plus we're in tornado alley).

We headed for Jacksonville, usually a 5 hour trip. Twelve hours later we finally got to the hotel, their nephew reserved for us. I cannot describe the traffic. It made rush hour here look like a walk in the park. The wind, the rain were unbelievable. We were very, very lucky as we found a place for gas and a couple potty stops. Thank God I had crackers and water in my truck (I had driven down from IL) because food was not available. There was a Shoney's by the hotel that we got to just before they closed. I think they felt sorry for us and stayed open.

The good news was we stayed two days in Jacksonville and fell in love with the city.

Since then I've been in two hurricanes in Orlando. Not direct hits and not as bad as Opal to drive through.

Cyn

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I forgot to add--we live on a barrier island so any evacuation becomes a mandatory evacuation. Knowing that--we watch...and all is in place--that even the slightest hint of evacuation--we prepare...and when they drop the hammer and say evacuate--we are one of the first on the road. Most evacuations are for afternoon or first thing in the morning. I hear that leaving early in the morning the day after the order is issued is actually one of the better times to leave (if timeframe allows)--the evening of an evacuation (if issued earlier in the day) is one of the most awful--b/c usually a few hours have elapsed--everyone had the chance to go home and get there things--and they all try to leave at the same time. A friend of mine was actually on the road, turned around with her 5 kids, stopped and had bbq and then went home. Then left early the next morning--with NO traffic.

 

[Disney Doll]

My DSIL lives on the east coast of Florida in a little town called Barefoot Bay, which is between Melbourne and Vero Beach.

She evacuated to WDW twice during last year's hurricane season.

 

[Southern4sure]

Last year we evacuated when Ivan threatened Mobile. We went to relatives in Atlanta. We had some pretty bad weather in Atlanta from Ivan. We left at 3 AM and the roads were great...hardly any traffic. Some family members left around 7 am and was on the road for hours in bumper to bumper traffic.

 

[Boston Tea Party]

For Hurrican Allen we went to relatives in the Dallas area.

 

[marybet]

We left for Dennis and went to my in-laws in Knoxville. We left early Sunday, the day it hit, and there was no traffic. Coming back was horrible, 2 hours to go 10 miles.

I am heading to Ohio tomorrow to visit my sons, been planning this all summer, just hope I don't get stuck in traffic from New Orleans. There is a road out of there that merges with I-65 in Birmingham but don't know if a lot of people will head that far north.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

For hurricane Ivan we went east which was a weird thing to do, but we were southeast of the storm in Albany GA, we got a hotel room along with some close friends who travelled with us. Albany got a little rain and just one tornado warning, but that was it. After hitting the panhandle, it went up to Atlanta which got it really bad. For Opal we went to Warner Robbins GA and stayed with friends. Nothing happened there at all from the storm. Traffic was bad for OPAL though coz we were evacuated at 7am on the day of the storm. DH and I lived on base at the time. A trip that should of only taken 5 hours, took 10!

I hope New Orleans doesn't get the brunt of the storm because they are under sea level and a category 4 storm could just destroy that city!! I'm glad it's not coming this way as the panhandle of FL CANNOT take another right now. So many haven't recovered from Ivan let alone Dennis. My oh my, what's going to be left of the panhandle with all these storms??

 

[Kitty 34]

My DSIL lives on the east coast of Florida in a little town called Barefoot Bay, which is between Melbourne and Vero Beach.

She evacuated to WDW twice during last year's hurricane season.

Evacuating to WDW wouldn't be too bad!

 

[FroggyinArk]

the traffic has picked up a lot in our area( we are on one of hte NO hurivcane evac routes, just north of the la line, hotels are starting to fill even this far north of the city, and yesterday the lotss here had started showing people headingin. saw a bunch of familys from la checking in, and we arent a real tourist area

hoping everyone that can is out of there, and that those who arent out can stay safe.