Evacuation times

[JoanFlorida]

Someone posted last night that it takes four times as long to drive during an evacuation. I certainly found that to be the case during hurricane Andrew, and would plan on at least four times as long.

I certainly agree with that post! During Floyd, it took us 6 hours to get to Orlando from Melbourne, normally 1 1/2 hours! During Frances, 12 hours to get to Tallahassee, normally 5 or so!

The up side is being comfortable in a place that has power, water, communication, etc. that makes it worth the drive!

[Brent]

I guess I may be lucky. I am on the same lines as Singing River Hospital. They usually have power back first. Although the cable company here stinks to high heaven. I have cable connection and even though I will have power that does not mean I will have cable back as soon. Which means I may be down from the net for a while.

Bellsouth is not much better. I have a phone line running right through a pecan tree. I have called them several times to come re-locate that line and it is still there. So if that tree goes, so will my phone line.

Actually... it's the same way here. The 2-hour outage from Frances last week was the first prolonged outage in I can't remember how long. On the other hand, if the wind gets up to 30 mph the cable and internet go out. It's so annoying.

[Lindaloo]

From my memory, Mobile has had tropical storm force/hurricane force winds from Camille, Frederic, Elena, Opal, Danny, Lili(?) in the more recent past. Also had a few bad hurricanes hit in the 1920's. For such a small coastline, it's seen it's share. I just think a lot of people had wake-up calls after seeing what Frederic did and the thought of another Cat 3 has mobilized (no pun intended) them to evacuate. (From a former Mobilian.)

Exactly. And if you talk to most Mobile folks today they seem to remember Frederic alot more. Pascagoula was on the west side of Frederic, but we received major damage just the same.