[DoughtyOne]

On FoxNews this evening, they were showing communities that had been leveled to the cement foundations. All the pads were clean. If there were any people in those homes, they'd have to be dead. I can understand the drive to stay near your home, but when it comes to hurricanes, I'd leave the area.

One thing is for certain, this will probably alter how future hurricanes are handled, with evacuations not being up to the individual.

For safety and looting reasons, landfall areas should be evacuated completely IMO.

[Maigrey]

Ping!

[mercy]

It would help if the Governor would call the evac in a timely fashion.

[ARCADIA]

I can understand the drive to stay near your home, but when it comes to hurricanes, I'd leave the area.

It is very hard to leave the area. I have been down dodging these things for twenty years. Usually, your employer will not release you until the warning is issued and that leaves you with way less then 24 hours to get ready and get out. That is when the eye will hit land, but with large storms driving can start to get rough 8 hours before that. When you are looking at something like Florida, there isn't really anywhere to go. You have to drive up to eight hours in good traffic to get out of the state and you may be in the storms path the whole way. That doesn't leave you with much time to collect your family, seal up your house, and pack up your life; and, we are assuming that the thing actually stays on course and you get the full 24 hours of notice.

With Katrina, Broward county issued a hurricane warning, but Dade county did not. As a result people were ordered into work on Friday in Dade county. When the storm changed direction they actually ended up driving home in tropical storm winds. They would have been lucky to find enough time to put up their storm shutters.

Also, keep in mind that these warnings happen half a dozen times a year. You never know until the last minute what these storms will do. Who can afford to cut and run on every warning? You either have to develop a certain tolerance for these things or move away from the coast.

[expatguy]

"One thing is for certain, this will probably alter how future hurricanes are handled, with evacuations not being up to the individual."

Are you suggesting that people will be "forced" to evacuate?

[keats5]

A complete mandatory evacuation would have accomplished two tasks:

1) no looters; and

2) people not feeling the need to stay in their homes to protect against looters.