[Restorer]

Your plan is a good one. However, it must be examined in the light of political realities.

Last year a hurricane was predicted to hit the Tampa Bay area. Not by the meteorologists, but by the local news people, who don't seem to understand the concept of probability.

The storm swerved south, hitting Port Charlotte, where some native of Tampa hed fled to avoid the storm. Imagine what would happen to the political career of someone who dragged the population off like this and then it missed the city.

Look at how upset people get when the government issues a terror threat warning and then nothing happens! Imagine their response to being forcibly dragged 100 miles inland and then nothing happens.

By the time we know for sure an area will be hit, it is too late to fully evacuate a large city.

[jwpjr]

That's why I used the term 'in retrospect'! Hindsight is always 20-20 and I would be the first to agree with you that the plan is flawed. The simple truth is that the dye is cast. We have built and over-built coastal areas to the point where there is no practical way to avoid disasters such as we're seeing right now. A similar strike on the Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater area would be equally disastrous, if not worse. We need something like 36 hours to get everyone off the Pinellas county coast.

I am VERY familiar with that unfortunate turn of events last year! I live in Tampa! To make it even worse, when the storm finally did move across Florida it went almost directly across the very area where hundreds and thousands of Gulf Coast residents had gone to get out of harm's way! The plan would simply not work well for Florida since we are surrounded by water on three sides and a storm can come at us from any area.

OK, time to turn to Plan B. Anyone have any ideas?

[uncbob]

By the time we know for sure an area will be hit, it is too late to fully evacuate a large city.

The real solution is to quit building in these areas