People along the South East Coast of the US, are you evacuating because of Matthew?

Parts of SE Georgia (Brunswick, St Marys, Savannah) are under evacuation orders. However, Atlanta is far enough north and west of the storm area (and far enough from the ocean) that there are no warnings here. For now.

A girlfriend of mine lives in an island east of Jacksonville and she is debating whether to evacuate. I assume she is in an evacuation area, but I don’t know for sure. I haven’t been watching the TV/weather much the last 24 hours. I texted her this morning saying she can come to my house if she wants. I’m far from her, almost two hours, but thought I would just put it out there. I think flooding is a big risk for her. They are predicting storm surge and high tide will coincide in JAX area. She has water just 20 ft behind her house. I dint know if it’s linked to waterways or just a place where run off from the community collects.

I texted my uncle too. He is just west of the coastline near the Space Center, which is where they were originally saying was the most likely to be the place the storm would make landfall. They board horses, so I’m sure they are worried about the horses, maybe they will move them. There isn’t a secure barb for a windstorm like this. He and his girlfriend plan to stay in their house for the storm though.

Another friend is directly on the intracoastal in a high rise. She is staying. I’m not sure if that became an evacuation zone? She is on the west side of the bridge, so it’s possible if they did order an evacuation it was just up to the east side of the bridge. Either way, if the storm veers west into Ft. Laud it will be bad. On the higher floors the wind speeds are higher. A cat 4 is a cat 5 if you are high up.

I’m north or Orlando. I’m not very concerned except that there is a big tree in front of the house I rent, and it’s the type of tree that comes down during hurricanes. As long as the eye doesn’t come across here I think the wind will be in the direction to cause it to fall away-ish from the house. Not that I expect it to fall, but it is a passing thought.

The houses here don’t have hurricane shutters, and all over town they have dead palm fronds on the trees. I’ve talked about it since we moved here. If the eye comes through then the change in direction on the backside of the eye really isn’t good for the tree down worry. I haven’t done a ton to prepare since I’m inland. Gassed my car, bought some Cheetos, got some cash, made a bunch of ice, and will be filling my tub with water. I wish I had my battery operated radio. The radio is in storage along with my flashlights. We will likely have the worst in the wee hours of the night. It sucks to be in the pitch dark with everything banging around outside and the power out with no information. I’m optimistic we won’t get it very bad here though.

My job dictates that I couldn’t really evacuate if I wanted. But I would have stayed for this one anyway. If it ends up hitting Southwest of me ,which is unlikely, I’ll take my dog and I to a shelter nearby.

At this point my roommates, and friends are having a hurricane party on Friday. I can’t remember the last Friday I had off.

I stayed in the VA hospital here in Charleston for a cat 3. You couldn’t even tell the hurricane was here. I’d probably stay for a 5 too. In the right building.

When you evacuate it’s sometimes gard to get back. Roads are blocked ,and bridges closed. After Hugo, the Bensawyer draw bridge was collapsed ,leaving no way to get to several highly populated islands. People had to hire boats to take them to check on their homes. Some waited months. I’d rather hunker down somewhere and be able to protect my stuff.

I live on the Gulf coast of Florida. We’ll get some gusty wind and some rain but nothing major. I’m staying home.

My friends on the Atlantic coast are mostly hunkering down where they are. I don’t know anyone rich enough to live on the barrier islands, where evacuation is mandatory.

Best wishes to all of you in Matthews path.

Be safe and dry.

First two rain bands just came through my area. We are trying to figure out where we can park our cars so a tree can’t easily fall on them.

@JLeslie I know that drill well too. Out here it is moving the cars away from falling trees in high wind and snow storms.

@Coloma There is no good spot near where I live so we separated the cars at either end of the steet hoping both won’t get whacked. The people here aren’t pulling their pots and lawn adornments inside! In southeast Florida we clear everything that can become airborne.

How is everyone doing this morning? Is the worst still to come?

The storm is nearing Jacksonville, and they are in high tide, so in an hour or so we should know a lot more about flooding there.

Daytona had some flooding. All areas from Melbourne north along the coast had bits of damage here and there.

One death reported. A woman had a heart attack when emergency vehicles were prohibited from rescue. :(

Many counties have curfews.

Video of Jacksonville Beach at about 1:30 PM EDT

@Seek Whoa! That’s wild! I hope people followed orders to evacuate and took their pets with them too!

There are a few people trapped in a hotel on that road right now. They should be fine, but they’ve clearly disobeyed evacuation orders.

I asked my girlfriend who evacuated if some of her neighbor’s stayed behind. I was thinking at least they can update her about the neighborhood and her house. She said many stayed. Many people disobey the order. It’s almost always the case. When I talked to her about it yesterday even I said it’s a toss up whether to leave. That storm didn’t look to me like it would stay a 4 and duck into JAX. JAX is fairly west. You never know though. It’s more like it goes into the Carolinas or east back to sea.

Many people stay because they can more easily afford to hunker down with no electricity for a few days than they can afford a hotel room for a week.

@Seek True. Even people who have the money hate the inconvenience. Some people don’t want to leave their businesses or their pets. All sorts of reasons. Usually there are free shelters, but you still have to get to the shelter. If you don’t have a car you have to hope for public transportation. There were buses provided in most places. It’s still not easy.

Going back to the inconvenience, the people on islands can’t get back home until the city decided the bridges are open. It’s very frustrating. If they don’t decide by dusk she will be trapped another day, because most likely there will be a curfew.

@JLeslie: I’d imagine another reason many might not want to leave is they may be afraid of their houses being robbed.

@jca Business people are afraid of that for their stores. When looting does happen during hurricanes it seems to most often happen to stores. It really depends what part of town regarding houses.

Most people I know aren’t very concerned about their homes being robbed. They mostly don’t want the inconvenience. Also, they want to be there so if something goes wrong they can try to mitigate the damage. Like a friend of mine during Andrew believes if they hadn’t been home the house would have come down. The door was blowing in and they pushed heavy item up against the door. When air gets in all the contents can get blown around and the roof can blow off. If flood waters come in you can move things to the second floor if you have one. People in flood zones before the storm already move some important items up, off the floor, away from walls, but in the emergency they feel they can do more.

Mostly, people don’t evacuate if they’ve been through a bunch of hurricanes and they did just fine. Or, if they have evacuated before and the storm was way less than expected and were away from their homes for three days for “nothing.” People also kind of evaluate for themselves if they agree with reports that the storm is really coming at them.

Deaths related to the storm in FL are a lot of times not from what people think of. I don’t know how many people died in Matthew, but I do know the first death reported was a woman who had a heart attack and it happened when emergency response teams were not allowed on the roads. Once sustained winds are above 40 mph no rescue goes out on the roads. Would she have lived if an ambulance could have gone to her? I don’t know. Other people die from generators running and people putting them in places that the fumes kill them. Candles that start house fires. All sorts of preventable deaths. Those all go into the hurricane death toll count.

Edit: Also, death tolls include deaths related to evacuation of all things. The death toll is divided into indirect and direct, but the media usually reports it as a grand total.

Yeah, the biggest danger related to hurricanes in Florida is loss of power, when people run a generator inside their house, killing off their whole family with carbon monoxide.

Natural selection, really.