Google Hurricane Rita evacuation of Houston and experience the nightmare...

It was a disaster of epic proportions.
-Blast

Blast ... yes I do need to go back and read thru those old reports about the Houston evacuation. I seem to recall that was a nightmare for a lot of people.

Hikermor - you are right that the biggest disaster in So. Cal would be an earthquake. Hence there would be no advance warning. And as you say - a LOT of the freeway overpasses would come down. So realistically, we would be lucky here if we had one major freeway still intact that could be used for evacuation. Imagine the time it would take to get several million people out of the city using just one freeway. Complicating things - I'm not sure anybody here has a plan to broadcast emergency messages telling residents which roads are still open after a big quake (so there would be a lot of confusion). And I'm sure that authorities would want to use the surviving freeway to be able to bring emergency supplies INTO the city. So it's just a mess to think about. I doubt they could get most people out in two weeks. But it sure would simplify the relief operations if they could get as many residents out as possible.

I was actually thinking about other kinds of disasters ... possibly an evacuation due to a toxic chemical release - or even an incident involving chem/bio weapons (hopefully those crazies in N. Korea don't do something like that).

But still, if a lot of people pour out of a major city, it seems like campgrounds and motels would be occupied for hundreds of miles in all directions. Hence my own evacuation location needs to be outside that radius. And I should count on carrying enough gasoline for quite a long distance. Which tells me I better get a roof rack on my vehicle.

cheers,
Pete2

Not too likely I'd evac from the PNW because we just don't have the type of crisies I'd evaucate from. But I keep a set of AAA maps and driver's guides for the roads between Washington and Minnesota to the East, and to Arizona to the South in my trunk. Knowing all the roads and the alternative routes might be important, and the AAA guides have a comprehensive lists of all the hotels, campgrounds, gas stations etc etc etc en route. All free to AAA members.

This was before I bought a Garmin GPS or had a smart phone with built in GPS, maps and ability to Bing all the roadside attractions at my thumbs, but suppose those were offline, I'd at least want the paper guides to navigate from after I get past the Cascades. Besides, AAA is a smidge more comprehensive and direct than any online resources, which tend to reward thems that pays them to be listed.

This is not tested but I had an Emergency Manager type mention that driving cross-country in Canada seemed to have better resources in the event we evacuated from the PNW. Provided you can pass across the border, you have far fewer drivers stressing the gasoline supply across the provinces than you might in the States (assuming BC isn't evacuated like our region is). So going North for 2 hours before proceeding East and then heading South to Minnesota and my relatives is a possibility.

FWIW my Toyota Prius has been quite handy in several real world occasions, where the traffic is gridlocked for hours, and someof my fellow drivers are running out of gas idling their engines. The Prius only puts on the gas engine to top off the hybrid battery a bit - you can move 4 miles and everyone but you runs out of gas. Yet you're still stuck either way, because not all the dunderheads have the sense to push their gasless hulks off to the side of the road.

Pete,your car should do 3-400 miles,that should get us Californios out of disaster area.If road conditions allow.

Just stayed at a Red Roof Inn and they are pet friendly. Their website states there's no add'l deposit or fee for pets.

Pete, if these are you main concerns, then they are fairly contained events, more like evacuating from a wildfire, rather than a huge mass migration for an approaching hurricane.

I'm not sure how a chemical attack would likely play out, but running from a toxic industrial accident seems fairly hit and miss IMHO. Unless you're quite close to the source and would likely die whether you're inside or outside, sheltering in place is likely sufficient until the main threat has subsided. Since winds can shift quickly, getting stuck on the road and caught up in a concentrated plume could be far worse than hunkering down.

A bio attack would probably result in a locked down quarantine zone. If you're not inside the hot zone, it's probably safe enough to stay where you are, unless you're downwind of certain bio agents.

But unless you already live in a sensitive area with military assets, like chembio-specific detection equipment, it could take a while before anyone knows that a chembio attack is responsible for some situation. The "fog of war" is likely to prevail during any time window that would allow you to flee before authorities figure out what is happening and probably lock things down.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

I can relate an actual "chemical spill" that occurred in SoCal - I don't recall the precise date, but it was sometime in the late 1980s. We were unloading people at Anacapa Island when the boat captain gave five blasts on the horn and announced on the PA that everyone on the island was to get back on the boat immediately. A rocket on the launch pad at Vandeenberg (Pt Conception 50 miles or so to the west) had blown up on the launch pad, releasing a devil's brew of chemicals into the atmosphere. The park islands were downwind of the launch pad, and the word went out - everybody off.

The boat captain got on the horn, and only half jokingly inquired as to which direction should we head - further out to sea, or return to the mainland to die with everyone else. There was definitely some confusion and "fog of war" in the air along with the nasty rocket propellants. We had people on San Miguel Island, much closer to Vandenberg, and getting them off was a significant problem. They were enveloped by the chemical cloud and minimized it by retreating to the ranger station and sealing the windows and doors. We immediately sent a plane and got them off, although they still had to hike about half a mile to the airstrip. Medical treatment and monitoring was necessary, but everyone recovered.

With strong prevailing winds (think Santa Anas) a considerable distance and large populations could be involved, especially if you are dealing with highly toxic substances. And the circumstances will not be immediately clear. Anacapa was essentially unaffected, we learned later.

Living next to Vandenberg AFB can be exciting. A few years later, a rocket launched from Vandenberg blew up, dropping rocket parts on both San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands. Good thing we had hard hats readily available.....

During an emergency I would cut that estimated distance in half. And many people would run out of gas, food, diapers, water. Unless I have no other option, I'm staying put. Can you imagine being stuck on the 405, the 10, or the 5 in the middle of summer? **shudders**

I live in Washington, D.C. -- smack in the middle of the Beltway -- and was here on 9/11/01. On that day, after the Pentagon was hit, a lot of my friends gave up on cars and walked home -- for miles -- to Virginia and Maryland. Since then this area has had a couple more experiences with evacuations and I've given a lot of thought to my own options in evacuating in an emergency.

I've concluded that it is fantasy to think I could get any appreciable distance without getting stuck for many hours. Hotels, forget it. I'd be either staying at a friend's or camping - fortunately I have a vehicle suited to sleeping inside.

So if the crisis is something involving several days warning, such as a hurricane, I'll err on the side of evacuating early. Anything posing a choice between sheltering in and hitting the road would likely have me staying home and perhaps leaving when the worst of the traffic crush is over.

Meanwhile, I keep my fuel tank topped off and the car is well equipped at all times. Never know where you'll be when something happens....


http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-08-24/local/35270649_1_web-site-information-earthquake

Earthquake illustrates colossal challenge of evacuating Washington, D.C.

By Ashley Halsey III and Ed O’Keefe,August 24, 2011

"...it is impossible for everyone to leave town in a hurry.

“Not only can it not be done, we should not try it,” said Ron Kirby, transportation planning coordinator for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

“You can just look at the evacuations that are taking place for the hurricane that’s approaching to see that in most cases they take several days,” said Montgomery County Council member Phil Andrews, who chairs the Emergency Preparedness Council, a regional committee under the Council of Governments.


http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dc-continues-struggle-orderly-evacuations

D.C. continues to struggle with orderly evacuations

Published 30 August 2011

Even during normal traffic conditions the city’s streets are clogged. The city’s nineteen evacuation routes are routinely jammed during rush hour due to the large number of employees commuting in and out of the city. D.C.’s population roughly triples from 600,000 to 1.8 million each workday resulting in severe strains on the city’s transportation infrastructure.

Dagny and others up thread have hit on some key points. Some things to think about:

What kind of emergencies am I most likely to face? Hurricane? Flood? Earthquake? Wildfire? Chemical spill? What others are perhaps less likely, but still possible?

For each of these possibilities, is sheltering in place a good option? For example in an area subject to severe flooding, evacuation might be the only realistic option. In other locations and situations, if you have made suitible preps, sheltering in place might be a better plan.

How much warning are you likely to have? For hurricanes you are likely to have a lot of warning. If getting out of Dodge seems the best choice, it's probably best to make that decision early to avoid the linear parking lot that will occur on freeways. Earthquakes just happen, with no real warning. And earthquake damage may be widespread, making evacuation difficult or impossible. In that case, it might be better to stay put.

If I decide to evacuate, how difficult might that be? The experience in Houston for Rita was instructive. What alternative routes are available? How likeley are they to be blocked by damage? If I try to evacuate but get stuck half way, am I in worse shape than had I stayed put?

What community resources are likely to be available? Some communities are much better prepared than others. In another thread, Lono talked about Red Cross shelters. Part of good planning would be to find out what is likely to be available (or not) in your area. If you live out in the country, there might be very few people around to help you. If you live in a big city, the authorities might be overwhelmed in a major emergency. Maybe you should get involved with CERT or other groups to make your community stronger?

Above all realize that things probably won't happen exactly as you expect. Plan for a variety of options. Don't get locked into only one plan. Being flexible is a good survival trait, in my opinion.