OK...A new practice scenario. For this one we travel to the tip of tropical Florida.

Your company has you living in Miami. A cat 4-5 hurricane is predicted to hit the tip of Florida in 24-36 hours.

Assume for this exercise:

* A rented, furnished apartment
* Plenty of available cash
* A nice car
* Your ecd and BOB but not much more.


Go.

I would hope to have had more notice than 36 hours if the hurricane is that size, so I would have boarded up my windows and been on the road a few days beforehand.

If not, I'd grab my bag, cash, and whatever other supplies I could and take secondary roads north.

Flip on the tv in my hotel room 500 miles inland and watch the carnage. I would have left as soon as the "cone of uncertainty" for Miami was above 20%! That city is a madhouse.

-Blast

I'm out of there as fast as I get to my vehicle. There is no way that I'd try to ride it out, particularly if I live within sight of the ocean. That area is so flat that any kind of storm surge would kill thousands.

I'm with Blast on this one. A cat 4 or 5 is nothing to take chances with. If I lived there, my bags would be packed, plenty of cash available and car never allowed to get below 3/4 tank during June through November.

Unless I was unconscious and unable to move, I would have been a long time gone. A Cat. 4-5 is nothing to play with. Having ridden out a Cat. 2, I don't want to repeat that mistake. EDC, BoB, cash, food, clothes, wife and dog go into vehicle. Head north out of Florida. Exact destination unknown. Watch the Weather Channel and local media often. Listen to NOAA/NWS for updates. Once off the penninsula, I would make the decision as to the direction to travel.

The problem is more complicated than it looks. As a Florida resident for 19 years, I've been through my share of hurricanes including the eye of three category 3 storms passing over my house 2004-2005. You need to understand the geography of Southern Florida. There are two major roadways out of Miami (I-95 and the Turnpike). Both will be a parking lot 24 hours before the storm. If you can get out before then, do it. But, you need to be prepared to run out of gas somewhere south of Jacksonville and realize that the gas stations will likely be out as well. Hotel rooms in central Florida will be eaten up quickly and if you remember the path of Charlie, that's not a great idea anyway.

The forcast track (the cone of death as we like to call it down here) is quite inaccurate until 24 hours before the storm. If I had abandoned ship every time we were in the cone in 2004, I would have spent more time in Geogia than at home during the hurricane season.

That said, I am 5 miles inland and have less to worry about. Those on the water have no choice and generally bug out early.

My advice is to get out as early as your personal circumstances will allow and make provision to carry extra gasoline if you can.

Craig.

Fortunately I have a full tank and no reason to hesitate. Jump in car and drive to Valdosta, GA, ~500 miles from Key Largo. A storm that large would have been tracked for days previously, so by 24-36 prior to landfall I should already be in GA.

Close the apartment, get your most important valuables, fill the car with gas, and get the heck out of there.

Plenty of cash equals a direct flight to Phoenix, it is beautiful that time of the year...

Roger that. If I can't get a commercial flight I'm sure I can find something else. With enough cash, anything's possible.