When a Hurricane Threatens, Should You Evacuate?

Before the devastation that occurred in 2005 with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, if you told someone that lived on the Gulf Coast that a hurricane was coming, they probably would have looked at you, shrugged, and said OK." The threat of a hurricane usually wasn't a big deal. Like most people who live in areas with a higher propensity for a natural disaster to occur, a hurricane was something that you couldn't avoid. Everyone would minimally prepare, stock up on water, and just wait it out. No one was ready for a mass evacuation, including our system of governments.

Personally, I've lived through a few hurricanes. I even slept through one when I was five. My parents generally didn't prepare for hurricanes, except boarding up the windows when it looked like "it was going to be a bad one." In 2005, I was living in Austin, Texas when the large hurricanes hit. My parents are from the Houston area, dead in line for where Hurricane Rita was supposed to hit. They didn't attempt leaving until it was almost too late. All of the back roads leading to Austin were blocked off, completely inaccessible.

The major highways were flooded with cars. It took my parents two hours to reach my Uncle's new house, which had been built barely a year before, and was only 20 minutes away. I was panic stricken when my mom called me, after everything I had seen on the news about the hurricane and the traffic, to tell me they were going to stay. There was nothing I could do. But Rita turned northward, striking the eastern coast of Texas. People were dying in the highway traffic due to the heat, due to the accidents.

They had run out of gas, water, and were stranded. Though it compared to nothing like Katrina, the majority of the devastation was something that could have been avoided if people were more prepared, more aware. My parents made the right decision by choosing not to try and fight the traffic. Who takes responsibility in this matter?

When should people evacuate?

Weather.com gives the following data about when storms associated with hurricanes might hit:

Tropical Storm Watch -- Tropical storm conditions with sustained winds from 39 to 73 mph are possible in your area within the next 36 hours.

Tropical Storm Warning -- Tropical storm conditions are expected in your area within the next 24 hours.

Hurricane Watch -- Hurricane conditions (sustained winds greater than 74 mph) are possible in your area within 36 hours.

Hurricane Warning -- Hurricane conditions are expected in your area in 24 hours or less.

If you live near the ocean, you should also be aware of the following alerts.

Coastal Flood Watch -- The possibility exists for the inundation of land areas along the coast within the next 12 to 36 hours.

Coastal Flood Warning -- Land areas along the coast are expected to become, or have become, inundated by sea water above the typical tide action.

Typically, people are warned to leave as soon as the receive notice that a hurricane is about to hit. A storm is generally slow moving, so the brunt of it does not reach landfall without advanced notice of the storm. Constant awareness and attention to the condition of the storm should give people enough time to prepare for an evacuation.

The truth is, there is no certain time that is a good time to evacuate. Unless there are fail-proof predetermined evacuation measures, even when people leave at an appropriate time, so many factors, as history can show, will inhibit the evacuees from getting to safer ground. Alas, no evacuation systems is perfect, and even the weather experts can only divulge so much about what they do and don't know.

What makes people stay during a hurricane?

After the 2005 hysteria, there are so many people who are afraid to leave their homes. Who can blame them?

Knowing information about when to evacuate, you have to ask whether or not the population really has time to evacuate, or the means. Some people have no ability to leave. Others don't have anywhere to go. And there are still more people who are stubborn and feel they have seen to many hurricanes to let one threat move them out of the home they have known for a lifetime. We cannot ignore that the government must bear some responsibility to its constituents. It would be inhumane to ignore these people, just because of their social position. From Forbes.com, AP writer John Heilprin has written an article about FEMA over preparing for Hurricane Dean, and what the government is doing to ensure cooperation for a pending disaster:

"Katrina was a wake-up call for all of us in emergency management and also for the federal government. We know we have to play together as a team, we know we have to respond as the federal government, not as individual agencies," said FEMA head R. David Paulison, who took over the agency in 2006 after his predecessor, Michael Brown, was sharply rebuked for the government's slow response to Katrina.

As we prepare for the worst of the 2007 hurricane season, let's hope that we all learn from mistakes in the past, and all take heed to the warnings given by the experts. The Gulf Coast population should know by now whether it's time to leave or to stay, and what precautions they should take. You can't control the weather, but you can control your knowledge, attention, and reaction to it.