Posted on 10/08/2024 1:04:49 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Residents along Florida’s Gulf Coast were fleeing in droves on Tuesday ahead of Hurricane Milton’s predicted landfall, in what officials said was likely to be the biggest evacuation the state has seen since Hurricane Irma struck in 2017. Evacuees have faced hourslong traffic jams on highways and gas stations running out of fuel.
Nine counties in Florida, including some inland ones, have ordered mandatory evacuations for Milton, the strongest Gulf storm since 2005. Officials were preparing for “the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely, since 2017’s Hurricane Irma,” Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management said in a news conference on Sunday.
That storm prompted the largest hurricane evacuation in the state’s history, with about 6.5 million people fleeing their homes.
Officials have warned residents in evacuation zones to leave as early as possible to avoid traffic jams. “This will be one of the largest evacuations along our state’s west coast. If you wait, you will get stuck in traffic,” the government of Sarasota County, which issued evacuations orders, said Monday on social media.
But those who fled north on Monday were already reporting heavy traffic, gas stations that had run out of fuel and trips taking several hours longer than usual.
Jacqueline Camenisch, 62, from Kentucky, cut short her family vacation in Orlando and drove north on Monday evening with her children and grandchildren to Panama City. She had initially wanted to evacuate the family to Gainesville, about 100 miles north, she said, but found that all accommodation was completely booked.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It sounds like it is still a good idea to get the heck out of the way.
Living in a place 12 ft above sea level with a 15 ft surge on the way sounds questionable.
Better off running out of gas in this situation than EV draining out.
i75 northbound has been a parking lot since yesterday... wonder how many teslas will be stranded amongst the evacuation routes...
Volusia County (Daytona on the Atlantic side) just announced mandatory evacuation of Zone A (Intercoastal and all waterfront houses, all manufactured and mobile homes)
I’d choose a gas powered car over an EV any day.
Very.
I just finished a 2000 mile end of year road trip in my glorious diesel powered RV. There were several teslas strands on the side of the road along the mountain passes and several stranded after traffic was stopped for a couple hours from a wreck. If someone runs out of gasoline or diesel I am sure someone would sell a gallon or two for twenty bucks. But you can’t get a can full of electrons for a battery.
The only mandatory evacuation in Polk Co is for trailers and mobile homes. This looks like it is going to be similar to Irma in 2017 in the FL interior, with lots of power outages.
On a personal note, I have been in the hospital for a blood infection; I was supposed to be discharged today with home health care, but that is not available, so the hospital is requiring me to ride out Milton there, with my family at home about three miles away.
Good luck and prayers for all in the path.
Hoping you will do well. I am not far from you so let me know if there is anything I can do.
how’s the EV’s doing on the EVAC?
same with I-4 out of Tampa. That highway is a fluster cluck on a good day. I would rather go through a hurricane in my home than die on a highway trying to escape a hurricane. Godspeed to all the folks there
Yes it was in an EV, but don't do a trip like that in an EV without doing research. If we had made that long of a trip in another part of the U.S. we'd have to take the gas pickup (because there wouldn't be enough fast chargers). Or if we had done it at another time of the year (driving and charging an EV in the freezing winter up north). But if you have both an EV and a gas car, then before each trip you can research which one is best (and cheapest) for the trip. IMHO that's practical and not falling for the Dims' trap of having to pick sides on EV's vs gas cars.
Of course, the Dim voters who believe that EV's save the world and they should have an EV even if it's their only car and try to force it to be used in all of their driving situations -- those are the ones who have problems with EV's. And the Dim leaders should quit pushing their warmageddon cult and using it as an excuse to force EV's onto us --- like EV's are somehow better for the environment anyway (probably worse than gas cars).
Would it be better to try to take some older back road two-lanes? Or maybe those would be just as backed up.
I’m having flashbacks to the Hurricane Rita evacuation boondoggle fiasco back in 2005
I suppose most would evacuate north of the track but it does not look too bad for s.e. FL just tropical storm force winds.
I would say don’t go for a Darwin award on this one, it is currently a cat-5 and even if it “weakens” near landfall it is still going to be bringing in all that accumulated surge and a cat-3 landfall is nothing to write off either for potential wind damage.
FDOT is setting up temporary charging stations. Make America Florida.
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