Mandatory evacuation? Where do they go?

[FairestOfThemAll37]

I believe anyone who is evacuated and has nowhere to go would go to a designated shelter.

I doubt WDW would be under a mandatory evacuation. I live in Orlando and I've never experienced this, even in the 2004 season when we were last impacted.

Off topic, but have you found anywhere with water? Or heard anywhere that will be getting a decent amount? I mean I can stockpile filtered tap water but not my first choice.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

Off topic, but have you found anywhere with water? Or heard anywhere that will be getting a decent amount? I mean I can stockpile filtered tap water but not my first choice.

I didn't have any luck with grocery stores yesterday. Went to Publix twice (an hour after they said they would restock) and Trader Joe's (Dr. Phillips) and nothing. Bungalower has a list of some places that were still selling water as of earlier today: http://bungalower.com/2017/09/05/orlandoans-need-know-hurricane-irma-updates-closures/

 

[AquamarineSteph]

I live in middle Tennessee, and we often see a surge of hotel reservations whenever a hurricane comes up the Gulf or the East Coast. There was even coverage on the local news tonight that some people leaving Florida have already come this far north to ride out both Hurricane Irma and possibly Jose in its wake.

The first wave of arrivals are people who can afford to fly out early/drive out ahead of the storm and stay in a hotel for a week or more until they see how the storm progresses. I don't think everyone has the option to take an unexpected vacation like that.

 

[bumbershoot]

, if necessary, you get a cab and go to an airport, a bus station, a rental car office, and go home, or to some other town or city that's not being evacuated.

Airport...MCO is pretty clear that they aren't a shelter...

Stuck in Orlando. Cancelled fights Saturday to Toronto for another week. I don't think we will have to leave our place but are considering getting a room at a Disney hotel.

American has flights out on Saturday according to kayak.com... And for now, at least.

 

[dish rag]

Airport...MCO is pretty clear that they aren't a shelter...



American has flights out on Saturday according to kayak.com... And for now, at least.

Air Canada was offering free flight changes for certain flights and we qualified and switched while we could. Didn't want to take a chance and be stuck in an airport. I'll say that Air Canada was very organized and on the ball and had a very easy to use area on the web site to handle all of this.

 

[indimom]

I've got some relatives in Florida. They have gotten hotel reservations in southern Tennessee in the past. Once, we took an impromptu vacation, met them there, and spent a couple days by the pool.
We've never been on vacation during a storm. My youngest sis had a trip planned to Disney last year, which they delayed due to a storm. Instead, they went Labor Day weekend, and flew home yesterday. Luckily, that's the closest any of my family has come to being on vacation during foul weather.

 

[quandrea]

Stuck in Orlando. Cancelled fights Saturday to Toronto for another week. I don't think we will have to leave our place but are considering getting a room at a Disney hotel.

Put that hotel money towards a flight with another airline. I'm assuming you're flying Air Transat. West jet and Air Canada fly in and out of Orlando multiple times a day. I'd call them and get out of Orlando ASAP.

 

[dclpluto]

But, where do people go if they are told to evacuate?

Disney world

 

[Starwind]

Thank you. I kinda thought they'd do that. But was hoping someone that lived through it would chime in and say what they went through!
How do they designate a building as a a safe shelter? Location, obviously. But what else?

Shelters are designated by the local or state government. Location, building design, building structural design/safety, space to house people, ability to provide shelter services (sleeping space, washrooms, food service, showers, etc). They are often schools and government buildings, sometimes churches/synagogues/mosques/etc.

Most jurisdictions have pre-designated shelters [i.e. they have a list of buildings suitable for being shelters] and may or may not already have some supplies prestocked at them. It is part of the emergency planning a community does. These shelters can be used for local emergencies that affect only part of a community, or in the case of large emergencies like hurricanes they will be used to shelter people who have evacuated from elsewhere [or, in some cases, more locally]. Think, for example, of the large shelters San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas set up for evacuees from Houston. Man shelters will be "run" by the Red Cross as part of standing agreements.

There will also sometimes be shelters designated as "shelter of last resort" which is a shelter that will not have the normal resources of a normal shelter, is typically in or nearer the impact zone, and is for those who can't get out to a safer location -- the last resort shelter is better than nowhere or riding it out in a definitely unsafe location.

Then, as you saw in Houston, there are impromptu shelters that get set up following some emergencies, where there are immediate needs -- e.g. houses are flooded and people need somewhere safer to go. In Houston all kinds of places have been used that are not normally designated shelters -- churches, mosques, businesses (like that Mattress store that has been in the news).

 

[dish rag]

Put that hotel money towards a flight with another airline. I'm assuming you're flying Air Transat. West jet and Air Canada fly in and out of Orlando multiple times a day. I'd call them and get out of Orlando ASAP.

Air Canada Rouge. We have a house in Orlando and will just stay there.

 

[lorimay]

But, where do people go if they are told to evacuate?

Here in South Florida, its mostly schools that open up as shelters. You have to bring your own supplies, but its a safe place. Some allow pets. I hope people go and don't try to brave it out. This is a bad storm.
I think we have 14 shelters that are opening today in Broward Country. They showed one that opened last night and there was less than a dozen people there this morning.
We are getting phone calls from the county giving evacuation warnings as well.

 

[cvjw]

I am in metro Atlanta, and our local news said last night that all hotel rooms were full. Evacuees coming up from Florida are staying in Atlanta - at least those that got reservations before they were all gone.

 

[aprilchem]

People who live in areas where evacuation is a possibility should have evacuation plans in place for situations like this. I don't live in an official evacuation zone for hurricanes, but we were hit extremely hard by Isabelle in the early 2000s, and we live 6 miles from a nuclear power plant and about 90 miles from DC. My family has an evacuation plan in place in case there was some emergency, attack, or disaster that would force us to leave our homes. We have meeting spots picked out and have decided that in an emergency that occurred when we were all at work/school, I would get the kids in my van and my DH would head directly to the meeting spot in his car and we would meet there.

I have several coworkers who have family in Florida and in Charleston, and they are already heading up this way and will be here in Virginia tonight. They'll stay here until the storm passes Florida, and if we get his hard here in Virginia I think they're planning to go west to avoid it here.

 

[cindyfan]

designated by the local or state government. Location, building design, building structural design/safety, space to house people, ability to provide shelter services (sleeping space, washrooms, food service, showers, etc). They are often schools and government buildings, sometimes churches/synagogues/mosques/etc.

So, since this is the DISboards.... next question.... are any of the buildings at WDW designated as shelters?
I know many people went to resorts at WDW during Mathew last year, but did they all have to pay?
Or were some of the buildings designated?

 

[SC Minnie]

DD is part of the ride out crew at Saratoga Springs for Irma and has been told she will be at the resort from Sunday to at least Tuesday. She was there the day after Matthew in Oct.

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

So, since this is the DISboards.... next question.... are any of the buildings at WDW designated as shelters?
I know many people went to resorts at WDW during Mathew last year, but did they all have to pay?
Or were some of the buildings designated?

I would highly doubt they'd ever be a designated shelter because it's a private business. If people rode out hurricanes at a WDW resort they paid for it. I've never heard of someone staying in a hotel for free during a hurricane. Some hotels in Orlando are lowering their prices for evacuees, though.

Like the previous poster said, it's generally government buildings like schools. No shelter information has been released in Orange and Osceola counties yet (where WDW is).

 

[VandVsmama]

Re: a prior comment that no building is hurricane proof....

I bet a concrete bunker would be hurricane proof.

 

[bcla]

Yeah - I remember my visit to Florida there was a mandatory visitor evacuation of the Keys. Apparently a lot of visitors just ignored it and rode it out. It turned out to be less severe than anticipated.

The oddest evacuation I heard of was a family that decided to leave with Andrew about to hit Florida back in 1992. They decided on Hawaii - or more specifically Kauai for a two week vacation. Where they found themselves in the center of their hotel waiting out a Pacific hurricane.