Interesting editorial regarding Rita Evacuations

[Miss Jasmine]

I know some people had issues with things I was posting on another thread about people evacuating who didn't really need to. This was in my local paper yesterday. For the record, the Florida Today is a Brevard County, Florida newspaper. Brevard County is located on the Atlantic coast of Florida, so we know about hurricanes.

Evacuation nightmares

Brevardians should head for safe local shelter when a hurricane is near


After Hurricane Katrina and its more than 1,000 deaths, we joined the nation in relief over the weekend when Hurricane Rita was less devastating than feared.

While Rita's property damage is a widespread and costly disaster, so far, few fatalities have been reported.

Authorities in Texas and Louisiana, which were slammed by Rita, say the evacuation of barrier islands and other dangerous areas prevented the storm from taking thousands of lives.

That's a lesson Brevard County residents should remember in a hurricane season that still has two months to go.

If ordered to get out, get out.

But in Houston, many newcomers had no experience with hurricanes. Maybe that's why far more Houston residents evacuated than needed to, with about 2.5 million fleeing the city.

The result was massive traffic tie-ups that kept ill-prepared people on the highways for 15 hours and more, triggering breakdowns, gas shortages and illness, and forcing passengers to endure lack of food, water and facilities.

Having hundreds of thousands stuck on the highway with a furious hurricane bearing down is just what Florida's emergency management officials want to avoid.

So keep in mind the old hurricane rule of thumb:

Run from water, hide from wind.

Even in the face of a Category 4 or 5 monster, people should make plans to find solid shelter in or near their own county unless they leave several days before the storm, says Mike Stone, a spokesman for Florida's emergency management office.

Residents of Brevard's barrier islands, including Merritt Island, and low-lying areas near rivers and other water bodies subject to storm surge will be ordered to evacuate, says Brevard County Emergency Management Director Bob Lay.

The county also orders those who live in mobile or manufactured homes to find safer shelter.

But even those who live in sturdy homes should leave, if the windows are not protected by hurricane shutters, and if the doors -- including the garage door -- are not braced against powerful winds that can blow them open, Lay says.

Residents of apartments or condos also should head for other shelter unless they are certain the structures are built to protect against a strong hurricane.

That's a hard thing to know, which means the safest approach is to go to a friend or relative's solidly built house with reliable window and door protection, or to a public shelter.

Brevard residents subject to evacuation should have a plan, and supplies for several days ready to pack. They also should set up a contact outside the area, in case family members are separated.

Having plans in place will help calm the fears that sent so many people on long drives away from Houston, when they were not under evacuation orders.

Despite their miserable hours on the road, they were lucky. Rita didn't smash into them as they were trapped on the highway.

It might not work that way the next time.

 

[bsnyder]

Great editorial, Miss Jasmine. I wish more people would heed the advice it gives.

 

[JimB.]

Good points

I used to live on the island tucked in between Satellite Beach & Patrick AFB. Our house was about 8' above sea level, & that was on the western edge of the Island.

I always figured that if the "big one" came (which, fortunately it never did. Well, there was David in 1980, but that did not really count.....) the entire island would be under water if there was any appreciable surge.

Did my parents have a "plan"? Naaaah. That's never going to happen to US!!

So when time came TO evacuate for David, they did

not
have
a
clue
what to do.

Fortunately, we went with our next door neighbors over to Winter Park for a day.

After that, and with where I live NOW, I've always had the philosophy that when it's time, IT'S TIME!! But unless it's a Strong 3+, I am safe from flooding and just have to worry about the 300 trees within 50' of house coming down.

Hopefully there is adequate routes off of the Island there now. It's a lot more congested now than when I was there.

But hopefully none of us will have to deal with that anymore this year

 

[MrsKreamer]

That is exactly why my family starts making hotel reservaions the moment we think a storm is coming our way. We have had plenty of near misses, like Ivan(trust me I did not want to evacuate being 38 weeks preggers ), and a few others, but that is the chance you take living here...

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Miss J--that essentially sounds like it is saying to evacuate the whole county (if the home is not properly braced for the hurricane).


MrsKreamer--that is what we do as well.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Miss J--that essentially sounds like it is saying to evacuate the whole county (if the home is not properly braced for the hurricane).

Lisa, this is the crux of it:

That's a hard thing to know, which means the safest approach is to go to a friend or relative's solidly built house with reliable window and door protection, or to a public shelter.

It is saying go to the closest safe spot, don't go miles and miles away, there is no need.

 

[4greatboys]

Many of us on the Texas gulf coast probably wounldnt have tried to go far away but there were no hotel rooms available close by due to the Katrina vicitims. All we heard on the radio was there was nothing available between Houston and Dallas, San Antonio, etc. I would have glady gone to a shelter in North Houston or on the outskirts instead of trying to make it to my aunts house. They had no shelters open around here--which they should have had.

 

[Chuck S]

Also, no one was sure where Rita was going to hit. Early in the storm, it was predicted that the San Antonio area could have 125 mph winds. Heck, if that would have held true, I'd have been on my way to California to stay with friends... I would NOT stay in my house if there would have been a high probablility of that kind of weather, no matter if I were under an "evacuation order" or not.

 

[Planogirl]

We went through Alicia and I can't remember anyone evacuating Houston except some of those on the south and southeast sides. I've been puzzled as to why so many people decided to get out this time.

 

[bsnyder]

Many of us on the Texas gulf coast probably wounldnt have tried to go far away but there were no hotel rooms available close by due to the Katrina vicitims. All we heard on the radio was there was nothing available between Houston and Dallas, San Antonio, etc. I would have glady gone to a shelter in North Houston or on the outskirts instead of trying to make it to my aunts house. They had no shelters open around here--which they should have had.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but many people should be able to identify places other than a hotel. What about friends and co-workers who live outside the surge area?

 

[txaggiemomof3]

Also, no one was sure where Rita was going to hit. Early in the storm, it was predicted that the San Antonio area could have 125 mph winds. Heck, if that would have held true, I'd have been on my way to California to stay with friends... I would NOT stay in my house if there would have been a high probablility of that kind of weather, no matter if I were under an "evacuation order" or not.

I agree.

This is an informative article and definately has some good info. that pertains to most hurricanes. Rita was not a typical hurricane. We were forecast to get 120 mph sustained winds here and we are 60 miles inland. We had a place to go and we left. As I said before, given the chance to do it all over again, I would have done the same exact thing. I have NO regrets.

Maybe instead of blaming people for leaving, we could focus more attention on ways to improve our evacuation process. Why did we not have contraflow plans in place? Why were small cities on major evac. routes not prepared for the influx of traffic (we sat for an hour trying to get through several stoplights in the small town of Giddings on Hwy. 290)?

 

[ducklite]

We went through Alicia and I can't remember anyone evacuating Houston except some of those on the south and southeast sides. I've been puzzled as to why so many people decided to get out this time.

I think people were terrified to be left behind with possibly no services/food/etc. after seeing the images coming out of NOLA.

Anne

 

[txaggiemomof3]

Planogirl, I think Katrina was still fresh on people's minds. The worst case scenario pretty much happened to New Orleans. The worst case scenario was forecast for Houston at the time people were making the decision to evacuate. I was here for Alicia too and I would have stayed if I thought this storm would have been comparable. I don't know what Alicia was forecast to hit as but I believe she was a Cat. 2/weak Cat. 3 when she made landfall. The flooding caused by TS Allison a few years ago probably also played into some people's decisions.

 

[4greatboys]

We went through Alicia and I can't remember anyone evacuating Houston except some of those on the south and southeast sides. I've been puzzled as to why so many people decided to get out this time.

Alicia was a Cat 3. Had this one been I probably wouldnt have left but the strom surge from a 4 or 5 would have hit my house. Then after what happened with Katrina and seeing a 5 headed our way there was really nothing to think about. When we left it was a high Cat 5. Im sure if we had known it would go back down and turn we would have stayed but in the middle of it all there is no way to tell what's going to happen.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but many people should be able to identify places other than a hotel. What about friends and co-workers who live outside the surge area?

All my friends and my dh's co-workers live close to us. They were under mandatory evac too. We have a small family and the ones with the closest house was in Jewett (a small town outside Buffalo) on the way to Dallas.
Luckily we were invited to crash at Bumcats house in Katy. Though we post together here and on another board we had never met face to face. Not many ppl are willing to open their homes to ppl they havent met before, lol. They were very gracious to offer us a place to stay and we did take them up on their offer seeing as we had been on the road about 20 hours and it was gonna take us another 14 + hours to get to my aunts house. I wish others had had a place to go as well.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I'm sure there are exceptions, but many people should be able to identify places other than a hotel. What about friends and co-workers who live outside the surge area?

All my friends live in dodge as do I and they'd be leaving. The ones that don't have other people they must consider.

With 2 children and 5 cats...family is where we will have to go and they live in Tampa, St. augustine (by next year south florida), Atlanta and Washington DC....if a 5 is breathing down our necks--we'll be heading to Atlanta. We are the first batch out so there is no traffic to contend with and as we are in the mandatory zone...it really doesn't matter.

 

[bsnyder]

All my friends live in dodge as do I and they'd be leaving. The ones that don't have other people they must consider.

With 2 children and 5 cats...family is where we will have to go and they live in Tampa, St. augustine (by next year south florida), Atlanta and Washington DC....if a 5 is breathing down our necks--we'll be heading to Atlanta. We are the first batch out so there is no traffic to contend with and as we are in the mandatory zone...it really doesn't matter.

We're mandatory too, Zone A, so that's a CAT I. We have a pet, so public shelters are not an option for us. But we've found a very well built commercial building, just outside Zone E (Cat 5) for our evacuation shelter. It's 6 miles from our house.

I do realize some people will have no choice but to evacuate many miles from home. But there are also many who would just rather stay in a hotel, I guess because they assume it will be more comfortable. (most of my neighbors seem to like WDW, for some reason ) They've made no attempt to find something closer.

 

[Rajah]

Maybe instead of blaming people for leaving, we could focus more attention on ways to improve our evacuation process. Why did we not have contraflow plans in place? Why were small cities on major evac. routes not prepared for the influx of traffic (we sat for an hour trying to get through several stoplights in the small town of Giddings on Hwy. 290)?

 

[Rajah]

And also, I think a lot of people could and should have been more prepared for the journey. Take enough water (a gallon at least per person) to get you where you're going. Take food you can eat on the road. Top up with gas before you start out. Run the A/C on minimum if at all. Have a state map at the least, local map if possible. Know where you're going and alternate routes.