from a Floridian's viewpoint.... "run from the water, and hide from the wind" has been the state's policy for the last couple of seasons... flee from coastal tide surge if you are vulnerable, and plan your routes away from freshwater rivers as they typically are fed by extremely large run off areas, are relatively narrow, and easily expand over the banks with the increase in runoff....as population centers are clustered around the water, this often blocks major roadways... other than the St Johns, they typically run east and west to the coasts...where I live, US highway 19 parallels the coast, and everything to the west will be under water from coastal flooding... depending on the proposed track of the storm, most experienced Floridians have a plan devised according to the Saffir Simpson scale for storms... I plan on riding out up to a Cat 3 (my old house has been 125mph+)... as far a evacuation, most try to seek refuge with friends or relatives with newer homes constructed after Hurricane Andrew and the resulting change in the building codes requiring hurricane clips on roof trusses, and reinforced double garage doors... (during Andrew (Cat5 with gusts over 170mph) when the double wide garage doors of attached garages gave way, the roof of the home typically followed....those that move away from the coast probably 20 to 50 miles inland... of course during the 04/05 season, Polk county in the middle of the state had all three run right over the top of it in a couple month's time... we have very good Doppler radar coverage, and experience track forecasts... there are a lot of variables...if you live in the Keys, your options are quite different than mine... regards