I've just had a chance to sit down and have a look at the forum. You may be aware that the Delaware river recently flooded, the 4th largest flood on record. One of the areas badly flooded was our fire protection district. Along with other members of the department, I spent a few days working on the emergency, before the flood helping people evacuate, during the flood mainting a safe area and being on call for any emergencies, and after, pumping out scores of basements and conducting damage asessments.

Here's a few things I learned on this job.

The decision to evacuate is not made lightly. In fact, the hassle of an evacuation actually adds greatly to the complexity of an incident. We'd much prefer a "shelter in place" situation than an evacuation. The reason an evacuation is called is that there is a good chance people will DIE if they don't leave. It's not just those who who refuse to bug out at risk - it's the people (like me) who will try to go save your ass when, after seeing the water come up at a rate of a foot an hour, people call us and ask us to get them (and 5 suitcases of "essentail" items) out. Guess what? If you can't fit it on the back of an ATV, it ain't coming. And we're not taking your dog and cat, or bird, or goldfish or whatever.
The people who were smart - and there were many of them - got our evacuation notice 8 hours before the flood waters came up. More than a few of them came home to flood-damaged homes - but the contents of their homes had been for the most part, moved to higher ground because they swung into action immediately. I saw more than a few people with 72 hour kits simply throw them in their car and drive off soon after we knocked on their door with the evacuation notice.

Don't drive through water. Even in your "Big Truck" you're going to swamp. The decision to close a road is also a fairly big decision, in our area, we were forced to close off the main road into and out of the area. We decided this not because we were worried the road was getting dangerous - it WAS dangerous. Twice we had guys in jacked up trucks ignore the barricades, drive around them, and submerge. Fortunately, nobody was injured or killed, but the raods are closed for a reason, not for the hell of it.

Finally, turn on your damn weather radio and if you don't have one, get one. There's no excuse not to have one, and there's no reason not to turn it on when people from the fire company bang on your door and tell you a flood's coming - and then call the fire department every 10 minutes to ask how high the waters are going to get an when.