# Evacuations - peacetime & otherwise **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 1999, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evacuations-peacetime-otherwise/3295 "1999-09-18T03:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 1999, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evacuations-peacetime-otherwise/3295/1 "1999-09-18T03:22:00Z")
Virtually every news report I read or listened to regarding Floyd’s approach to land included the statement that the 2.6 million order to leave their homes was “the largest peacetime evacuation in US history”. What wartime evacuation would have been larger? Going backwards: **Persian Gulf** - away game **Vietnam** - " " **Korea**" " **WW II**" " (mostly) I guess So. Calif. might have had some evacuation, and Japanese could be said to have been “evacuated” if you like euphemisms, but I can’t think either of these would have been 2.6 million. Hawaii had nowhere to evacuate to… **WW I** away game **Spanish-American**" " **Indian Wars** home game, but not near any population centers approaching 2.6 million. **Civil War** Home game MAYBE Atlanta, again I doubt 2.6 million back then. **Mexican-American** Home game - no nearby populations to evacuate, though **War of 1812** Home Game I guess the East coast population centers did come under attack, but if “Star-Spangled Banner” is accurate, folks didn’t head for the hills. **Am Revolution** Home game I can’t think of anywhere with 2.6 million; I don’t think the whole 13 colonies had that many. ## So am I missing something? Or are all the news reports just quoting each other because they’re too lazy to independently check these things out? Sue from El Paso [members.aol.com/majormd/index.html](http://members.aol.com/majormd/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 1999, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evacuations-peacetime-otherwise/3295/2 "1999-09-18T05:56:00Z")
Well, one one hand, you have the fact that they claim it’s the largest. They don’t say, “the largest since WWII,” or, “the largest since XXX.” It’s the largest, period. No need to compare it with anything. But, I bet the Trail of Tears rivaled it. Also, how many Japanese were interred during the Big One? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 1999, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evacuations-peacetime-otherwise/3295/3 "1999-09-18T10:06:00Z")
I guess one would have to define evactuation. A lot of what you see on the news is hype. Having lived through hurricanes, including Andrew, I could tell the news media made too much out of it. OK it did a lot of damage, but they were saying it would be worse than Camille (Sp?). ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 1999, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evacuations-peacetime-otherwise/3295/4 "1999-09-18T19:13:00Z")
I alluded to the Japanese internment: > [@](#): > > and Japanese could be said to have been “evacuated” if you like euphemisms But it looks like there were about 110,000 Japanese displaced in WW II, not even conceivably close to 2.6 million. I also found a Trail of Tears site that mentioned 100,000 Indians living East of the Mississippi. It wasn’t clear on whether all of these people were forced to relocate, but again, nothing approaching 2.6 million. * * * Sue from El Paso [members.aol.com/majormd/index.html](http://members.aol.com/majormd/index.html)