how do mandatory evacuations work?

[cellio]

We sometimes hear about mandatory evacuations because of storms (hurricanes, winter storms, etc). Hearing about one a couple of years ago that was announced on a Saturday morning prompted me to ask this question about evacuations on Shabbat. Now the question of timing has come up.

I've been fortunate to never have to evacuate my home or city. (Buildings yes, but that's different.) I have this impression, perhaps informed by Hollywood rather than reality, that announcements get broadcast far and wide and then police or National Guard or whoever start going through the area making sure people clear out, and you maybe have an hour or two to get underway at best. But then I thought about the logistics of that, and I'm wondering if you really have several hours, maybe the better part of a day, to do your prep and get out.

I'm not talking about cases where the problem is immediate (there's just been an earthquake, the missile will strike in half an hour, etc), but about other cases where the threat is dire enough that there is an evacuation but it might not be "drop everything and go right now" -- the storm is making landfall tonight, cases where you have (or think you have) time to get everybody home from work/school so you can leave together, pack your car, contact people outside the affected area to arrange for shelter, etc. I realize it's a good idea to get out as soon as you can, if nothing else because of traffic, but we know people don't always do that (and can't always, if not everybody is together to start with).

So for those of you who've been through these kinds of evacuations, or who know more about it than I do, what's the timeline usually like? How long do people take to clear out?

Comments

[alienor.livejournal.com]

When we prepared for Hurricane Hugo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Hugo) the evacuation announcements were on TVs and radio. We lived about 20 miles inland, so there were no bullhorns or door-to-door knocking. We evacuated another 10-15 miles inland (my father was on deployment, so we stayed with another military family who's husband was ALSO on deployment).

The problem when you think "I have several hours to evacuate" is that you and everyone else thinks that and you have scenes like the pictures on this page from Hurricane Rita (http://www.hurricanescience.org/history/storms/2000s/rita/).

In Texas, the interstate highways often have 1-3 lane frontage roads, so from the left, 3-4 lane frontage road (headed inland), 6 lane interstate headed inland (with additional cars on shoulder, probably out of gas or overheated), 6 lane interstate running contraflow (opposite of normal) to attempt to accommodate the traffic (headed inland), and finally, the coast-bound frontage road.

It's common for cars in these situations to run out of gas and/or breakdown, so emergency services has to direct traffic in weird ways, AND assist the breakdowns, AND make sure everyone is out of their homes in the super dangerous areas (I believe that's mainly the first couple of streets facing the water, usually). Then they have to answer calls DURING the storm from folks whose homes collapsed or flooded or got ripped away by a tornado. Afterwards, they have to help get people out of ruined buildings AND protect property from looting. Oh, and they get to worry about not being with their own family during all of this.

So, pretty much what I'm saying is that emergency services are stretched pretty thin, so make the decision to get out early, do it, and get out of the way.

Also, about school/work - once the decision is made by officials to evacuate, everything starts closing. Definitely schools and office work. Groceries/gas will stay open as long as they can usually, but it depends on their personal plans.

[mortuus.livejournal.com]

I was a Red Cross volunteer in Utah for a few years and helped out once when there was an evacuation of a large part of a town due to a fire on the mountain. They got about half an hour of notice to pack up and head out. I don't know how they were notified, though. It was at night (I got the phone call at midnight to head to the Red Cross building to join the contingent to set up the shelter, so that was probably quite soon after the residents were notified, or around the same time), so I'm guessing door to door, since I know that is done.

So, really, not much time at all!

(They got the fire under control the next day and no homes were damaged.)

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

On a not quite as serious note: We've been talking about how various cities are getting rid of their snow. Buffalo essentially makes mountains out of parking lots. Does Pittsburgh dump their snow in the rivers, or is there a reason they don't.
-- Dagonell