On the news last night, a reporter was speaking to a couple about the approaching hurricane Matthew. The couple had elected to not evacuate the area, and casually described their intention to wait out the storm in the woman’s parents’ house across the street (the interview was taking place on the waterfront, with roiling seas visible in the background).
The clip immediately prior to that was of category 4 winds literally peeling roofs off of buildings in the Bahamas. It seems safe to expect similar effects in the area where this interview was taking place. My guess is that this couple has never experienced a hurricane before.
But maybe I’m wrong, and they totally know what they’re getting into.
What would you do? Have you directly experienced a hurricane (instead of evacuating)? If so, would you stick around for a second one, or would you leave town this time?
I’ve been through several hurricanes, beginning with Carla in 1961. We learned plenty of hurricane lore in school–living inland from Galveston, site of the worst natural disaster in US history.
The general rule is to flee from storm surge & hunker down if only wind is expected. *If *you live in a moderately sturdy building. (Note the Bolivar Peninsulabefore & after Hurricane Ike; that was storm surge.)
Living just north of Downtown Houston, I’m pretty safe. The city does flood–more often from slow-moving systems than hurricanes. But if I lived in a flooding neighborhood (I don’t), I might get out, anyway.
People with a house full of kids, oldsters or others with health problems might want to relocate temporarily. A storm & power loss can be nerve-wracking.
Anyone living on low-lying land near the water needs to get out. Sometimes the storm passes by relatively harmlessly. If things get bad, it’s too late to evacuate.
When growing up on the coast in Texas, I went through three major hurricanes and we stayed in our houses (brick) for all of them. While the hurricanes were awesome and terrifying, it was the one to two weeks afterwards that were hard – no power, no communication, very hot and humid.
We were living inland during the fourth hurricane I went through. It was terrifying in a different way, because our property had many large trees that fell during the storm. We did not expect the ferocity since we weren’t on the coast – boy, were we wrong!
For the fifth hurricane I was living on a sailboat in VA Beach. We moved the boat inland and stayed in a motel room, which turned into a small dark box when the power went out. It was only a Cat 1, so no big deal but I do not regret moving the boat due to the storm surge that occurred. Several boats in the marina we left were damaged.
If I lived in a sturdy brick/concrete block home I would stay. If I was in a wooden house or a mobile home I’d leave.
Each hurricane is different. Two we went through were large and dumped a LOT of water, causing massive flooding. The third was described as a “rake of tornados” and the wind was clocked at 173 mph at a Navy weather station 4 miles from us. There was very little rain with that one, but the scope of the destruction was unbelievable. The one in Virginia, while not very strong, caused major, lengthy power outages because in that state they do not trim the trees away from power lines like they do in Texas.
I have stayed though a couple as my work is considered essential. But prior to this job I evacuated before a Cat 5 hit our island. When I got back two months later it still looked like a bomb had gone off.
Been through five of them in three years here in Taiwan. They call them typhoons but they are the exact same thing, only on this side of the International Date Line.
We live in a concrete/brick house and the only thing to worry about are the windows. Losing power sucks because it’s hot and humid but there are worse things.
I haven’t lived through one, but I helped clean up after one.
When Hurricane Andrew hit, the Burger King headquarters was hit hard. I worked for their parent company in IT. We went down to vaccuum sand out of PCs and see if we could salvage data.
There was a car through the third story of headquarters. Nope, I wouldn’t stay.
We stayed in a beautiful home in Mexico that belonged to friends of friends - right on the coast in Akumal. They had a hurricane two months after we left. The windows blew out and there was four feet of sand in the kitchen and a huge boulder in the pool. The house is made of concrete - including most of the furniture - so you throw out the mattresses and cushions, throw out the TV and the little bit of furniture that moves. Throw out the appliances, shovel out the sand - clean and paint and replace the windows and all the stuff you threw out - and you are up and running again.
(They had to retile the pool after that one though - which turned out to be expensive.)
I was just in Hermine, which was a direct hit on my city about a month ago. It was “only” a Cat. 1 and I found myself without power for six days.
So a Cat 1 storm – the storm itself – isn’t too bad. It’s the aftermath that’s awful, no power, no cell service, no supplies available in the stores, no stores open, no traffic lights, streets blocked by downed trees everywhere.
So here’s what I will do the next time – and there WILL be a next time.
If it’s a Cat. 2 or weaker, I will stick out the storm itself just to take measures if a tree falls on my house (throw up a tarp). As soon as my property is secured and the roads are cleared and safe enough to evaucate, I will bounce town. If it’s a strong Cat. 2 or stronger, I am outta here. I am already researching pet-friendly hotels, but it’s hard to make a plan which direction to run in until you know where a given storm is coming from and where it’s going. In the case of Hermine, I could have gone just 100 miles west to my friends’ house at the beach, where there was no storm, no damage, and plenty of electricity and bandwidth. I have friends all over the southeast and family in Ohio. Depending on where the storm is/is going, sometimes it’s safer to go down into Central Florida, or up toward Atlanta. So I’m researching options all over.
But I will never stay for a week without power again. I had options; I just didn’t take them because I thought I would get power back any minute.
But anything Cat. 3 or over? No way would I sit that out.
ETA: I’ve lived in Florida since 1992 and have been through just about every hurricane that hit the state since Andrew.
I’ve been through more hurricanes that I can count. I generally would not evacuate, though I have urged my parents to do so after I moved away. Dad’s a heart patient, and being without air conditioning for any length of time is very difficult for him. A lot of it depends on the particulars. In some places, like South Louisiana, there are limited evacuation routes, and I’d rather ride out the storm than risk getting caught on the road during the storm. People with pets have trouble finding lodging during evacuations. People with medical/mobility issues can be difficult to evacuate. Etc.
This is an excellent point. A lot of people who don’t live in hurricane areas think all hurricanes are as destructive as the very worst ones.
In fact, I’d estimate that for probably 9 our of 10 hurricanes, it’s safe to stay put in a recent-construction suburban home. Big caveat, though – you have to be aware of a lot of small factors that could add up to big trouble if you decide to stay put. If you’re area never really floods? That helps. If your neighborhood floods if someone spills a Coke, though? Might have to evacuate in advance of even the weaker hurricanes.
Lots of other things have to be weighed, too. Ability to live without grid power for an extended period. General integrity of your home’s exterior (esp roofing). **Oakminster’s **point about the likelihood of getting stranded on an evacuation route is a great one. Pets. Health of members of your household. And so on.
I was in hurricane Gloria in '86, right on the southern shore of Long Island. There was a mandatory evacuation, but I stayed to keep my kittehs company. My building had cinder block construction, which nevertheless shook in the wind. All the sand on the beach blew away, and the boardwalk had significant damage.
My parents and their families all hail from Galveston or the mainland areas immediately north of there, and the conventional wisdom that Bridget Burke mentioned is pretty accurate- flee the storm surge, but wait out the rest, unless you’re prone to flooding. My aunt & uncle, parents and grandparents have never had issues- their houses in La Marque and Houston have never flooded, and for the most part, those houses were built in the 1950s and 1960s.
That, and a program of very aggressive annual tree-trimming is your friend if you live in hurricane-prone areas.
FWIW… Dad slept through most of the violent part of Hurricane Ike when it blew through. Apparently it wasn’t *that *bad in the SW Houston area.
I went through a couple in my youth, most notably Hurricane Donna, whose eye passed over our house. We actually went outdoors for a couple of minutes in the eye; I still remember how wet and heavy the air felt.
Not sure if I’d stay. The only hurricane that hit where I am now was Irene, and that was mostly rain. I’m on enough of a hill so that flooding wasn’t an issue (except for a little water in the basement.
That reminds me… I need to ask my grandmother if there are any family tales or lore about the 1900 Storm; her parents were either born right before, or right after, and her grandparents certainly lived through it. (the paternal side of her family had lived in Galveston since prior to the Civil War).
Talking with relatives the problem they faced was late notification of evacuation. The main highway leading out was a parking lot. they should have turned the south lanes into north lanes. Nothing bad happened except tree limbs and loose items strewn about. They were 25 miles inland.
The challenge we face here in Miami is you need to evac about 3 days before it hits. If you wait until later you’re just looking at riding out the hurricane stuck on a highway in the middle of nowhere. Ref Magiver, you have to evac before the authorities or the TV news start talking about it.
The peninsula is long and narrow and flat enough that there’s nowhere to go that’s necessarily safe. My almost-beachfront residence was struck by Wilma back in 2006 before I lived here. It made landfall near Tampa, came across the peninsula, and hit us from the land side. Where are you going to go to run from that? The answer is at least inland Georgia if not farther.
The secondary problem is that three days before it hits the forecast track uncertainty is plus/minus 150ish miles. For something with a seriously destructive swath width anywhere from 10 to 50 miles wide. Said another way, about 90% of the storms predicted at the three-day point to possibly direct-hit you won’t. How many times can you take unplanned 500-mile 4-day road trips for nothing?
It’s a tough problem.
For Matthew we prepped for a full-up Cat 4 landfall at our house. That day it rained some and it was pretty breezy. A few extra palm fronds came down in our neighborhood versus what we see every day with the standard afternoon tropical thunderstorm.
A hundred miles upcoast was a very different story, as CNN will have shown you ad nauseum.
If it was just me I’d hop a jet. But I’m responsible for a few other people. And airplanes out of town fill up quickly as the storm approaches and tourists decide they’d rather watch CNN from home than from their hotel. Leaving no seats for groups of low priority hitchhikers like us.