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Having just lived through Harvey, I cannot stress enough that if you are in a position to evacuate, please do so. We were lucky to narrowly escape flooding in o
by S_A_P 9y ago
Having just lived through Harvey, I cannot stress enough that if you are in a position to evacuate, please do so. We were lucky to narrowly escape flooding in our home, but for 3 days we had no water, septic or power(need power for the other 2). The flooding had us stuck in our neighborhood but we were able to kayak out to safety. In addition to high winds(which Houston fortunately avoided) flooding is very dangerous. Those in the path of Irma should expect both. Again please evacuate if you can.
- agumonkey 9y agoI wonder how flat is the houston area. West indies are often volcanic islands. Meaning the high ground will probably be "safe" from flood, the lower parts on the other hands.. Somehow they're a bit used to storms so they're not going full noob on this.
- wandererer 9y agoHouston is some of the flattest land you'll find in the states, but at least we're not quite below sea level. I'm from Austin, and have lived in Tokyo, and I used to joke while in Tokyo you'd go stir-crazy missing trees and greenery, despite the large parks there; in Houston you go crazy missing hills and topography if you're used to it.
- agumonkey 9y agoHeh, I remember coming back from Martinique, I landed in Paris, and while we were driving I was a bit lost, there were no up and downs anymore; everything was sooo flat.
- triangleman 9y agoYou're thinking of Cuba, who are certainly not noobs at this [1]. West Indies unfortunately are routinely decimated by tropical storms. For instance Hugo in 1989 destroyed almost everything in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, leading to widespread lawlessness until President Bush deployed troops there [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba_Emergency_Response_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba_Emergency_Response_System [2] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/hawkeye.htm http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/hawkeye.htm
- mchristen 9y agoStore owners guarding their stores from the roof w/ AK-47s will do that.
- cvsh 9y ago>You're thinking of Cuba, who are certainly not noobs at this. West Indies unfortunately are routinely decimated by tropical storms. This isn't really true anymore. For example, 95% of homes on St. Martin were destroyed by Hurricane Luis in 1995, because everyone lived in wooden houses. From that point on, the law mandated concrete buildings, and now all but the very poorest people live in houses impervious to hurricanes. The exceptions are places like Haiti, where folks are simply too poor to afford basic hurricane mitigation. But where people can prepare, they have prepared.
- smelendez 9y agoYeah, I saw the British Virgin Islands evacuated Anegada (which is a flat coral atoll), sending people to Tortola and Virgin Gorda (both quite hilly). http://www.bviddm.com/emergency-arrangements-for-anegada/ http://www.bviddm.com/emergency-arrangements-for-anegada/
- Shivetya 9y agocannot be too flat, have family friends who were high and dry but they didn't have far to go to find flood waters. Interestingly enough Houston didn't suffer flooding problems due to bad zoning, it has more absorbent surface coverage than most cities including some in similar positions relative to the sea. Suffering a stalled storm is not what you can really plan for. the water simply had no where to go.
- chiph 9y agoI was in Hugo in 1989 where I had no power for over a week (and was lucky). I totally agree. Residents in the Southeast should start preparing today while supplies are still in the stores. Board up your windows. Bring in outside lawn furniture and decorations so they don't become missiles. Go visit relatives or friends. If you can't leave (and you really should..) have water and shelf-stable food for a week (NOT bread, milk and steaks). Get your prescriptions refilled. Scan your insurance policy if you don't already have a PDF. Make a video with timestamp of your house and all your possessions. The suggestions at https://www.ready.gov https://www.ready.gov should be considered a starting point, as they assume that relief will arrive sooner than recent storms have proven. EDIT: Get your off-site backup started so you'll have time to Fed-Ex it out of town. If you have a business, make sure your employees will be fine, then start your continuity plans. Which should include some cash to pay bills in case the power goes out (no ATMs, no card machines).
- brightball 9y agoI still have a radar photo of Hugo somewhere. That storm was crazy.
- chiph 9y agoThe naval base in Charleston had a barge on which they had built hotel rooms for people to live in while working on various projects. After Hugo went through, it was found 1.5 miles (2.4 km) inland. Not sure if they ever got it back in the water, or they just cut it up where it was found.
- rdtsc 9y agoWhat do you think of city mayor's decision not to order a larger scale evacuation. NYT seems to think it was absolutely (their word) the right thing to do. Being on the ground there, would you agree?
- paul7986 9y agoHow do you evacuate 4 million people in a few days? Wouldn't they all clog up the roads and consume all the gasoline? At first I thought he didn't make the right decision then history shows that a few weeks after Katrina another storm prompted an evacuation. Many more died then evacuating.
- zxcvbnm885 9y agoHow about just evacuating the most vulnerable?
- astrodust 9y agoSome kind of classification system where people and/or households could be grouped together by urgency or sensitivity to calamities (e.g. diabetic, disabled, elderly) would make this process a lot more straightforward. If you're in group X you go at time Y, etc. Not that this would ever fly in Texas where if the government tells you to do something it's just them interfering in your life. Cuba has this down to a science. America has no clue what it's doing. The contrast is astounding.
- Godel_unicode 9y agoHn: privacy is the most important thing, the government is making lists and out to get you. Also Hn: let's make a detailed enough list of the exact medical condition of every household in the country that we can evacuate everyone more than X vulnerable in a few days. Unrelated: you're aware Cuba has roughly the population of NYC, right?
- 9y ago
- r0fl 9y agoEvacuating is very difficult and dangerous. This is a great read as to why: https://np.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6wcpt0/la_vita_bella_nursing_home_in_dickinson_texas/dm87jfk/ https://np.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6wcpt0/la_vita_bella_n...
- chrisco255 9y agoNot if you're in Florida and leave today. Plenty of time to get out of harm's way. Florida orders evacuations routinely for hurricanes.
- martin1975 9y agoTo add - evacuation doesn't have to mean go hundreds of miles... I lived in FL for 7+ years, if I was really worried, I'd just travel more inland. Typically hurricanes of any strength rapidly degrade as soon as you cut the legs from underneath them, meaning, they travel over land.. I'd say about 50 miles inland, you'd get a badass storm, but not hurricane strength winds...
- mcast 9y agoThe governor has suspended all tolls in Florida as well to alleviate traffic onto toll roads and turnpikes and off interstate highways.
- CiPHPerCoder 9y agoFloridians, especially those who lived through Charlie, are usually very well-versed in hurricane preparedness. Especially if, like me, they are unable to evacuate. (If I were to even attempt it, it would likely leave me stranded on the road for days and risk being a sitting duck.) That being said, I fully expect it to make landfall near where I live at category 5 strength, despite the current projections of "merely" a category 4 when it reaches us.
- orbitur 9y agoHonest question: You'd be stranded if you left now?
- CiPHPerCoder 9y agoThe problem isn't just the hurricane, it's surviving the aftermath. Let's look at the scenarios for evacuating the state. If I leave now (without any vehicle to my name), I'd need to arrange for a car rental. Assuming any vehicles are even available to be driven out of the state, and they'd rent one to someone who is half-blind and doesn't have a driver's license, by the time I got into one, I'd be looking at several days of traffic jams and statewide gas shortages. The odds of being stuck on the road when the hurricane hits is too significant to ignore, and I'd rather be in a house than a car. Then I would need a place to go. AirBNB, hotels, etc. are all expensive as hell, and probably saturated with evacuees. Finally, I need to do all that while taking more time off of work than I am allowed to take every year, which calls two things into question: 1. How will I pay for the evacuation and stay? 2. Will I even have a job after all this? (I work remote.) This isn't even considering the fact that I need to make a decision with 5 other adults (the people I live with, and care about the most, all of whom have decided to prepare and weather the storm). Evacuation sounds good in theory, but honestly, it's not so simple. In the off-chance that the storm kills me: Pragmatically speaking, I'm basically a nobody who has done practically nothing noteworthy, so no one outside my immediate circle of friends will care (if they even know). I encourage everyone in the path of the storm, all of whom probably matter to the community much more than I ever will, to make their own decisions and not follow my example.