Hurricane Evacuation Strategy Planning

[Clever nickname here]

Leave early or late. People that waited until the outer wind bands of Rita arrived were able to go inland at the normal 75mph.

[Dopo]

Is it me or this guy is trying to make sure that his muscles don't get wet?

http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/05/27/42.../1024x1024.jpg

[Texas Tarheel]

If you plan to stay home please be sure you are stocked on emergency supplies. It gets scarce in the stores. This is the time of year I make sure I have batteries, a few extra cases of water set aside, etc. I've waited to buy supplies before & it has been tough.

I am from the East Coast & rode out Fran & Floyd at home along with many smaller ones. I was home alone with a 2 year old for Floyd. My parents were out of town for Fran (planned vacation, not evacuated) and they had a terrible time getting back home as so many roads coming into town were flooded. Fran flooded areas over 120 miles inland.

That being said -if a strong Cat 4 or Cat 5 was heading my way I would reconsider evacuating. My brother & I almost left town for Floyd but were having trouble finding somewhere to go. We were going to head west to I-85 and then south to Atlanta. It was sold out from all of the people who had evacuated from further South.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by westhou

I don't think we will ever have an evacuation as bad as Rita. I was one of those idiots that evacuated when I didn't need to and regretted it. As a result I stayed during Ike and was fine. I think most people west of Hwy 59 will stay and thus free up the roads for the people east of 59.

Hurricane Allen(?) in 1980 was just as bad. People forget. Another 10 years and most people will forget Rita.

1) Leave very early if you are going to leave or leave late but not at the last minute. Most people leave in the middle, so you can avoid the worst. But if you wait too long, it can be dangerous.
2) Avoid Brenham at all costs. 36 from the south and 290 from Houston merge there and they haven't done anything to change that. I had a friend who took 24 hours to get to Brenham.
3) Once you get out of Houston, there are some FM roads to the west that will be lightly travelled. Last time, I-10 got easy just past Columbus.