By all means leave long before there is a mandatory evacuation. Keep your unit ready to go and stocked with essentials during the storm season, lock up the house and go.
When a hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico and you are in a stike zone, be ready to leave as soon as they predict landfall within 2 days.
All great information. I work a 28/28 schedule and there have been times I was not home and the DW and kids had to fend for themselves. Kids are much older now and they help DW as much as possible but they all have families too. We have almost always tried to get a space for the 5er up North La. for a few months so DW can just leave home and drive to wherever we are set up. Once in the past few years we waited too long and were unable to find a space within a respective distance. That time I told her I told her to leave the 5er and head to safety. The last thing you want to do is be pulling a 5er in bumper to bumper hurricane evac traffic. The 5er can be replaced not a life. Just use your judgement and as others have said LEAVE EARLY.
StanleyandIris wrote: By all means leave long before there is a mandatory evacuation. Keep your unit ready to go and stocked with essentials during the storm season, lock up the house and go.
When a hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico and you are in a stike zone, be ready to leave as soon as they predict landfall within 2 days.
Although much more devastating than a tornado at least with hurrincanes, at least the ones I've followed on the news, the weather report knows when something is brewing out at sea sometimes 'weeks' before hand. And then they do a count down for land fall as you stated in your post. That's a pretty good long warning to get your things together and get out of dodge. We have a half hour or so for where a tornado has developed and in which direction its heading.
That's why I have a really hard time feeling sorry for those that stay and get in trouble.
BTW, just 'when' is the main part of hurricane season?
My plans have changed and I have to make the trip to Florida in 10 days prior to heading to California. Please tell me I won't be in the middle of all that!
31 ft Four Winds
Chevy Tracker 4x4 BlueOx Aventa LX We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
StanleyandIris wrote: By all means leave long before there is a mandatory evacuation. Keep your unit ready to go and stocked with essentials during the storm season, lock up the house and go.
When a hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico and you are in a stike zone, be ready to leave as soon as they predict landfall within 2 days.
Although much more devastating than a tornado at least with hurrincanes, at least the ones I've followed on the news, the weather report knows when something is brewing out at sea sometimes 'weeks' before hand. And then they do a count down for land fall as you stated in your post. That's a pretty good long warning to get your things together and get out of dodge. We have a half hour or so for where a tornado has developed and in which direction its heading.
That's why I have a really hard time feeling sorry for those that stay and get in trouble.
BTW, just 'when' is the main part of hurricane season?
My plans have changed and I have to make the trip to Florida in 10 days prior to heading to California. Please tell me I won't be in the middle of all that!
June 1st to November 1st is hurricane season. officially.
Skip
We have a route that takes us away from the major freeways, the RV is always ready to go, and we leave early. Being as close to Houston as you are you may have a problem finding a route that is not heavily traveled but I'll bet you can. I also know where all the RV parks are in the small communities about 100 miles away in all directions because there probably will be no gas available along the way. If you plan ahead you will not have a problem.
Good Luck
Larry
Thanks to all. Good advice. I know the secret is to leave early, but my wife's employer wouldn't let them leave as early as mine( a day later). I figure she may have to use some sick leave if it ever happens again.
I'm still curious if anyone has been asked to open up their rig for potty, water, food etc, in an emergency situation.
Not during a hurricane, but once we were stranded on the west bound lane of Bay Bridge, in Louisiana, because of an accident for seven hours. It would have been nice to have had our 5er back then. But, do you open it up to everyone? I try to help out when I can, but my trust level has diminished somewhat the older I get.
You guys are great!!
Happy camping!!!
Skip
* This post was
edited 06/22/08 01:01pm by Skip N Barb Team *
I hope to hear more from those who have used their RV as a mode of "mobile alternative/emergency housing". Before moving to the coast one of my concerns was not having to live in an apartment, distant, if we had to rebuild our home. I'd much rather be in my trailer, hopefully a reasonable commuting distance away until I could set things up to use the trailer at the lot.
3-5 mph is common, 7 mph is another speed I've heard. I've been estimating 3-5 mpg for a gas truck, and am now wondering if 6 mpg for the diesel is a good ballpark figure. It looks as though the vehicles, towing or solo that have the biggest fuel tank are better than a small car with small tankage.
Figure I may have to use sick days, also. Will try to make this a regular exercise so that it becomes easier with practice.
As to routes I have been studying what the city/county/state have to say about zones, traffic flow, etc. Corpus Christi is obivously a different problem than greater Houston as our metro area (surrounding counties plus city) is 400m people. That said, if the Valley has to evacuate then it increases steadily. After Rita I was hearing that the 150-mile drive to San Antonio was 12-hours.
Thus, I have been studying alternate routes (heading west, then north to go west around San Antonio for example), with the proviso that I DON"T KNOW if I would be able to cross some major highways if the crossing is at grade-level (police may force traffic into stream).
The National Weather Service has some interesting info on the reach, inland, of a major storm, it is well over 100 miles. Heavy rains and wind.
I don't plan to offer amenities to anyone beyond what they can carry away (food, fuel, water or other supplies). That said, I may make exceptions like anyone else. I saw some terrifically poor people barely making it north after Rita, and they could have used help from anyone from what I saw, it was pitiful.
Thanks to all for their experience, I'm all ears for more.
* This post was
edited 06/22/08 05:12pm by '68Monaco440HP *
When we evacuated for Rita we did have 2 women ask for drinks while stuck in traffic.
The best advice is to leave early, obviously, but we have a business (close to you in Dickinson actually) so it isn't always easy just to lock up and go. Now that we're fulltimers (no stick house) we won't really have a choice living close to the coast.
We've evacuated a number of times. I remember for Lilli we departed a day or so before landfall--no problem getting out. We went to Dallas where we visited the Aquarium and zoo and had a great time. When the storm was making landfall at home we were out to dinner. We finally got in touch with a neighbor who told us that all looked well on our property but no power. We waited four days after the storm to return so that we would have power upon arrival. All-in-all, if you take the time to get out, stay away until traffic flow and fuel availability returns to some resemblence of normal it will not be a terrible experience. Similar stories for Katrina and Rita.
We lived in Houston (Pasadena)for over 25 yrs., then we moved to Hot Springs, AR. Our daughter Melissa had an emergency hysterectomy about a week before Rita hit. I was there with her when we got the evacuation order. She didn't want to leave because her husband was out of town (work). I BEGGED her to leave Katy. It was rough on her, but I set her all up in the minivan, 3 kids in the back, left my dog with her dog in the garage and we took BACK ROADS from Katy to Hot Springs. That's another clue to getting out, but mainly, LEAVE EARLY like everyone else has said.
Melissa's mother in law left Pasadena going to Conroe and it took her close to 18 hrs., also an hr. drive. She has MS and canNOT get overheated, but of course, when you're inching along you can't run the AC, so she ended up wearing her nightgown and pouring water over the top of her head, drenching herself to try and keep cool. Potty was a tin can in the back seat. It was HORRIBLE.
We made it to Hot Springs, but Rita turned and didn't come into Galveston as first predicted and it didn't even rain in Katy. How some ever, Rita followed us all the way to Hot Springs and DH and I were in Little Rock the following day picking up some furniture when it hit...tornadoes on I30 and the radio said "Tornado sighed at the Congo Road Exit in Little Rock"...and I was sitting at the Congo Road exit. I pulled off the freeway down Hwy. 5 towards Hot Springs cause if we had to bail it would be easier to find a ditch there than on a Freeway. God had his hand on us cause we didn't see anything but rain and hail and lots of wind. Leave Early! But watch the news cause those things have a way of changing their minds ya know!
Bill & Linda
Ladymc & Shuttlebird
2008 Silver Dodge Diesel Dually 3500 - "The Silver Bullet"
Towing 1998 35 ft. Newmar 5th wheel
20K Husky Hitch & Blue Ox Bedsaver
Handheld Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS AND Sat. in dash mounted GPS in the truck
READY TO ROLL!
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