Which state is the worst at evacuations?

[taccido]

I would say Texas because they had that terrible evacuation where dozens of people died. Worst evac evah!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... world_news

[Hurricanehink]

I would say New Jersey, since it is inexperienced, and there are few evac routes.

[tina25]

Surprisingly, I would say southern Florida since there really is only one way you can go.. north. One would think the roads would get clogged up very quickly and easily.

[Macrocane]

I don't live in US so I don't know how valid is my opinion but from what I've seen and what I've read it seems to me that the evacuations in Texas are very bad, I remember to see on the news more accidents and disorganization in the evacuations of Rita and Ike (Texas) than those for Katrina and Gustav (Louisiana), just to give some examples.

[AdamFirst]

Florida is probably the worst.

Didn't 2 million people evacuate Florida from Floyd?

[Florida1118]

Generally, Tx. and FL. are both pretty bad. TX. I think Fl would be worse though because all the roads pretty much are clogged with traffic. Only one way out, and thats north.

[cwachal]

how about NY.... try evacuating NYC in the case of a hurricane

[tailgater]

I would think that one of the states that haven't faced a Major evacuation in a while. I think that all the GOM states have learn how to do it much better(the hard way) in recent years. Katina was terrible. Too many people think that it won't be that bad or won't hit me or just have poor planning.

[Fourman]

I would say Texas because they had that terrible evacuation where dozens of people died. Worst evac evah!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... world_news

Are all your posts just to piss people off? My primary job is to help people evacuate in Texas and we train very hard to do this. Rita was a few years ago and many things have changed in Texas since then. If you are going to pull some article use a current one.

[Stephanie]

I would say New Jersey, since it is inexperienced, and there are few evac routes.

I hope that we are never tested, but I truly think that we will be one year.

[Lutrastorm]

The State of Delaware and the entire Delmarva Peninsula is probably right up there for difficult evauation. Consider the routes off the peninsula are either north via Route 1 to the Philadelphia/Wilmington Meto area or Route 50 and 404 West (a two lane highway) over to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Baltimore/Washington DC metro area or south via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel which would be closed if a storm with any significant winds were anticipated. Normal summer beach traffic causes major congestion on all these routes on any given weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

[Portastorm]

I would say Texas because they had that terrible evacuation where dozens of people died. Worst evac evah!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... world_news

Are all your posts just to piss people off? My primary job is to help people evacuate in Texas and we train very hard to do this. Rita was a few years ago and many things have changed in Texas since then. If you are going to pull some article use a current one.

I would like to weigh in here as well ... while our state's evacuation performance for Rita was nothing to be proud about, the state made significant changes after that event and since then I believe we have done very well (Dolly, Ike, Alex). Granted I am not so objective on this issue as I also am involved in our state's disaster response operations. But let me tell you that I have seen a HUGE difference since those hard lessons we learned from Rita in 2005. As Fourman posted we train hard to prepare for these events and a lot has changed since 2005.

[somethingfunny]

I would say Texas because they had that terrible evacuation where dozens of people died. Worst evac evah!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... world_news

Are all your posts just to piss people off? My primary job is to help people evacuate in Texas and we train very hard to do this. Rita was a few years ago and many things have changed in Texas since then. If you are going to pull some article use a current one.

I would like to weigh in here as well ... while our state's evacuation performance for Rita was nothing to be proud about, the state made significant changes after that event and since then I believe we have done very well (Dolly, Ike, Alex). Granted I am not so objective on this issue as I also am involved in our state's disaster response operations. But let me tell you that I have seen a HUGE difference since those hard lessons we learned from Rita in 2005. As Fourman posted we train hard to prepare for these events and a lot has changed since 2005.

Two great posts -- Fourman and Portastorm, we thank you for your service!!!!!

Rita was a debacle but you have to remember that it was right on the heels of Katrina and people were justifiably afraid to stay put even in areas that typically wouldn't have much to fear from a storm. Keep in mind that Houston's population grew substantially - by several hundred thousand - due to Katrina evacuees and refugees so there were far more people leaving Houston than even a worst case planning scenario would have expected to deal with. The indirect fatalities from Rita didn't end with the disastrous evacuation - the trauma from that experience led many people in the Galveston area to not evacuate from Ike three years later and I blame that partially for Ike's high death toll. However since then we have continued to work to improve our evacuation procedures and I believe that we will be wiser and better prepared for the next hurricane threat.

As for the state which is the worst at evacuations, I would have to single out a single part of Florida - the Florida Keys. It's difficult to justify evacuating the Keys when the only way out involves several hundred miles of highly congested highways, all of them within a few miles of the coastline and still within the likely hurricane's cone of uncertainty. Evacuation rates for the Keys are awful....something like 25% actually leave. One day the Florida Keys' luck will run out and sadly there will be a very high death toll due to storm surge flooding and lack of evacuation.

Why not ask which states are the best at evacuations? I say North Carolina - I have never heard of any major problems when they have to evacuate their coastline, and coastal death tolls tend to be very low around there despite some big hits in recent history.

[srainhoutx]

Two great posts -- Fourman and Portastorm, we thank you for your service!!!!!

Rita was a debacle but you have to remember that it was right on the heels of Katrina and people were justifiably afraid to stay put even in areas that typically wouldn't have much to fear from a storm. Keep in mind that Houston's population grew substantially - by several hundred thousand - due to Katrina evacuees and refugees so there were far more people leaving Houston than even a worst case planning scenario would have expected to deal with. The indirect fatalities from Rita didn't end with the disastrous evacuation - the trauma from that experience led many people in the Galveston area to not evacuate from Ike three years later and I blame that partially for Ike's high death toll. However since then we have continued to work to improve our evacuation procedures and I believe that we will be wiser and better prepared for the next hurricane threat.

As for the state which is the worst at evacuations, I would have to single out a single part of Florida - the Florida Keys. It's difficult to justify evacuating the Keys when the only way out involves several hundred miles of highly congested highways, all of them within a few miles of the coastline and still within the likely hurricane's cone of uncertainty. Evacuation rates for the Keys are awful....something like 25% actually leave. One day the Florida Keys' luck will run out and sadly there will be a very high death toll due to storm surge flooding and lack of evacuation.

Why not ask which states are the best at evacuations? I say North Carolina - I have never heard of any major problems when they have to evacuate their coastline, and coastal death tolls tend to be very low around there despite some big hits in recent history.

Monroe County has one of the best evacuation plans in the country IMO. My experience in the Lower Keys taught me that it is up to individuals to make wise decisions based on what 'officials' recommend. There are certainly some 'die hard' residents in the Keys, but many are very storm savvy. Ivan and Rita were good examples of when most residents did evacuate the Keys. Many wished they had for Wilma. Evacuation fatigue played a role for lack of evacuation before that Hurricane IMO. One final thought regarding Keys evacuations, tourist (non residents) are always the first to go in a staged Master Plan Evacuation in Monroe County. 3 regions step evacuation is in place for residents to leave. Many improvements have been made to infrastructure (US 1) to ease the load and provide single flow N if necessary since 2005. A more recent article may have been more appropriate for this discussion.

[Patrick99]

Surprisingly, I would say southern Florida since there really is only one way you can go.. north. One would think the roads would get clogged up very quickly and easily.

I don't think that S FL would be the worst, because down here, not that many people really need to evacuate. The vast majority of our population down here does not live in a coastal flood zone. Like me.....there'd be absolutely no point in me evacuating, unless I just didn't feel like dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane.

The general plan down here is to get people in flood zones into inland hurricane shelters, not to clog the interstate highways.

[dolebot_Broward_NW]

there'd be absolutely no point in me evacuating, unless I just didn't feel like dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane.

Same here. As for not dealing with the aftermath - thats why Tampa, Orlando, or SW GA exist (places I have family). Plan is to ride it out, then bail afterwards if we can. It won't work 100% if the big one comes. (Tears up roads and whatnot or buzzsaws the whole state N)