There is something that has not been addressed but certainly needs to be. By all emergency management personnel and those on this board. Everyone advises evacuation. Get out of the path of the storm! Well.... exactly how to do that is really one great big unknown unless one evacuates in time to reach middle Georgia, and the orders for evacuation are never given in time for all of us in county after county to reach middle Georgia. Traffic slows to a crawl and we're all stuck on the roads in the middle of a hurricane.

Scenario: Evacuation orders are given for county after county in SW FL.
Problem: Mets have absolutely no idea where the hurricane is actually going to go until it gets there. Case in point - Charley.
Scenario: I put plywood on all my windows, pack up and head inland, 1.5 hours from the coast, where there is no evacuation order because the hurricane is not "supposed" to go there..
Scenario: I take shelter in a home where windows are not boarded because the hurricane is not expected to reach there. Hurricane decides at the last moment to head away from where it was heading and make a turn my direction. I am now vulnerable, no plywood on windows, no generator, no water, no food supplies. Cat 4 winds roar overhead, huge oaks crashed around us, the roof peeled up, windows rattled and closet doors slammed of their own accord and I wondered why I left my boarded up, generator-ready, food-filled home to end up stranded in what became a complete disaster area.

I guess my point is this.... Do NOT expect evacuation orders given by emergency management officials to keep you out of harm's way. Hurricanes just don't work like that. My advice, from having experienced the exact scenario above is to protect yourself where you are unless you have a VERY good reason for being elsewhere. i.e. You live in a mobile home.

-Bev

Edited by Moderator. Lets be careful about what we say and how we say it.