This guy is the reason I would not evacuate:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=315026018854123&id=100010401811137

Would Shep Smith use hyperbole?
"Extravagant exaggeration (as “mile-high ice-cream cones”)".
"Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally".

Over-the-top exaggerations are kinda his thing.

Individual TV "meteorologists" don't issue evacuation orders. Besides, I don't think they're actual scientists. They just read from the prompt.

Shep Smith isn't a meteorologist, he's just a news anchor who sometimes gets carried away with "emotion" as natural and man-made events unfold -- "oh the humanity" as the Hindenburg crashes and burns. The hyperbole in this video is just Shep being himself; there is a problem with a "news" anchor who isn't to be taken seriously.

From your post in the other thread, Russ, it sounds like you'd be ahead of the evac order! Does the highway slow down to a crawl far worse than regular traffic during evacuations?

Evacuation orders turn a 70mph freeway into a 5-10mph freeway. I once lived near the intersection of I-10 & I-12. By the time I got home, after the evacuation orders had been given, & gotten packed up, both Interstates were slow moving parking lots.

We looked at the interstate traffic flow and the hurricane forecast and decided to sit tight until 0500 the next morning. When we left at 0500, the Interstates were wide open. We made 70mph to our BOL and only met a handfull of other vehicles. Sometimes it is best to sit tight until the panicked herd has cleared...

Hmmm, this is California, traffic slows to a crawl when one dufus runs out of gas. Fortunately, a wildfire evacuation is fairly localized, so traffic issues related to the evacuation are also localized.

If there were a wide-area emergency, there is no "bugging-out" for me unless I'm hours ahead of the first wave of traffic. I've got a very high density urban area to the north, a lot of desert to the east, Mexico to the south and west it is all water. I'm working on assets to go west We're set to bug in.

My thinking is fairly parallel to Russ's - evacuate if a local wildfire threatens - I have been ready to do this twice in the 25+ years I have lived here (we are ripe for a third occurrence) and stay in place if the ground shakes really bad.

With an EQ, you have essentially no advance warning and the freeways will be disrupted/clogged immediately. Might was well hunker down and use my preps plus what I can salvage from the rubble. I am a CERT volunteer and I like their priorities - take care of yourself first, then your immediate family, then neighbors. Once that is done, link up with other CERTs and assist the larger community. Just wish CERT had more comprehensive and regular training.

This is much the same where I live. We are boxed in with Pacific Ocean to the west, mountains to the north (with only a 2 lane highway once out of the immediate metro area) South is the Canada/USA border. The only real escape is east but there is only one major freeway with 2 lanes eastbound and another 2 lane eastbound highway that meanders through a stretched out but very populated area.

It would take a very significant and long-term (6 months+) societal ending disaster for us to even consider evacuating and it would probably be by boat, bicycle or on foot. Mind you we are safe from hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and so on. The only natural disaster for us would be a major earthquake that could happen in the next 500 to 1000 years. Thankfully, there are also no potential man made disasters awaiting to happen in our area to worry about.

I'm below sea level. When a sudden dyke fails, the plan is part evacuation by road/public transport and vertical evacuation. Vertical in the sence of high buildings. They calculated the road/transport capacity and that was simply not enough to move everybody. On the other hand we do have very good water defences. ..