Does anyone else find the mandatory evacuation in Corpus Christi a little bit unfortunate? A couple quick calculations on Google Earth show that it is over 200 miles to the southwest of the current forecast landfall point. This is roughly the same distance as Cape Caneveral to Miami. I'm all for erring on the side of caution, but at some point the stress on the roads and hotels becomes a problem for those in the danger area. Forcing people to evacuate from unaffected areas also reduces the chances that they will when there is a real threat. I guess the area must take a long time to evacuate and they had to go on yesterday's forecast track which appears now to have been way too far south. I saw the city manager for Corpus Christi on CNN saying that 3 weeks ago he would have waited another day before ordering the evactuation, but Katrina changed that. I suppose bottom line is that maybe Cat 5 storms should, and now after Katrina, do get special consideration in terms of evacuations and erring, even wildly, on the side of caution may be the best policy in order to save as many lives as possible.

Of course if you've been ordered to evacuate or even feel like it might be a good idea, please do so, especially if are in or near the right side of the cone.