The only problem I saw with the evacuation was the gridlock on the interstate. I still can't understand why they didn't make the interstate all one way as they do for some football games...
Florida has used that plan well, and it is usually in use in case of gridlock...
In my case, I'm so anal, I usually leave at least a day before everyone else, so I've never run into that problem. The closest we came to leaving late, was when I was visiting Robyn who at the time lived on Virginia Beach and a Cat 5 was heading for us.
Her husband, who is in the Navy wasn't home to help, so it was Robyn, 7 months and me with a bad back. Thank heavens for some strong neighbors who helped bring in the grill and patio furniture.
We evacuated to Durham, NC which is usually 3 1/2 -4 hours, but it took us over 6. We had made reservation there a few days ahead of time..many people without reservations showed up and were turned away. As it turned out, it was a good choice of hotels. Our hotel had the only restaurant open for miles. We had brought a couple of cases of water with us and enough snacks for a cruise ship.
Durham was hit by several tornados, so many places were without power. One of Robyn's neighbors stayed, (an old salt who said he never leaves) so she was able to get ahold of him by cell phone. He told us to stay put. There was no power or water there. So we did what we do so well, we went shopping!
As we were leaving to return to the beach, FEMA showed up at our hotel to make their plans...so all this hooey about FEMA not being in NO immediately is just that. It is up to the local and state government to do first response, not the President or FEMA...The Louisiana politicians need to take all the blame...all of it.
A few days later after a trip to Wal Mart, where we loaded up on water (six cases,) milk, bread, staples...and lots of ice and headed back. Driving back we saw complete devastion...we were almost afraid of what we would find. Amazingly, her place was fine and they were collecting food, water, and ice for the areas without power...Luckily we were able to donate.
We picked up her husbands car, which we had loaded with scrap books, and other important stuff and parked on the highest covered parking deck where she worked.
We got her Waterford and art work out of the bathtubs and inside closets..everything was fine, but I was so glad I was there to help. She wanted to stay 20 miles away....LOL |
