While we’ve dealt with a tropical storm or two over the past few years, Florida hasn’t been hit by a hurricane in ten years. That means that a lot of people may have forgotten what it’s like to go through a hurricane and may not realize the full dangers a storm like that can pose. It’s too early to tell whether the current tropical storm Erika may develop into a hurricane but even if it remains as a tropical storm, the high winds and torrential rains can still be deadly and current models have it passing over Florida or just off the coast.
If you chose to evacuate ahead of the storm, leave early! Those who remember evacuating the state as hurricane Floyd neared in 1999 may remember the nightmare on the roads as 2.6 million people tried to evacuate from coastal Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. At that time, Florida emergency management people were ill prepared for the numbers of people evacuating and traffic was stop-and-go from south Florida to central Georgia. One lesson learned from that storm was to close all lanes of the interstates to inbound traffic and open all lanes to outbound traffic going in one direction only.
For those in coastal areas, leaving early is critical because there will come a point in the storm when all bridges and causeways will be closed due to high winds and people who delay leaving will be stuck where they are.
If you plan to evacuate, plan ahead. With heavy stop-and-go traffic on the interstates, you may spend hours traveling between exits. To prepare for that:
Cell phone service may be disrupted. If members of your party in separate vehicles get separated:
Even after the worst part of the storm has passed, flooding will be an issue as water rushes into creeks and rivers and they start to rise. In recent years, tropical storm flooding has washed out roads and bridges.
If there’s standing or rushing water over the road:
Traffic in the evacuation zones will be heavy and drivers will be stressed:
For help in planning, visit: Get A Plan