CallaFirestormBW
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Joined: 6/29/2008 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Vendaval Dame Calla, Thank you for the additional information. Have you had to evacuate from your area in the past? And how much warning is given to residents in advance? Vendaval We evacuated 2 years ago, for Hurricane Rita, but did not evac for Hurricane Ike (I was on the Ride-Out team for the hospital I work at). Our apartment was secure (100% brick, lower level, with an enclosed courtyard (18 ft wall) that all doors/windows faced out onto). We were also elevated 10 ft above street level, and in an area of the city that was not in a flood plain. We were given a good bit of warning -- most of the folks here track hurricanes from the moment they look like they'll curve under or across Florida (just to make sure they don't re-spawn in the Atlantic, which -has- happened a couple of times), or as soon as something substantial shows up in the Caribbean, which, typically, gives us about 6-8 days +/- notice. Of course, all you can do at that point is plan, and you can't really determine landfall for a hurricane accurately until 24-36 hours out (and even then it can turn), but if you're in that cone, and it's a high 2+ storm, you pull in everything that could possible move, and get your fanny to safer ground. Ike was actually downgraded shortly before landfall, but it was such a HUGE storm, with a -very- proportionally small center and broad eye-wall, that it didn't really matter -- it was devastating over a very wide swath. The storm-surge was worse than the winds or the rain, though, and property was lost/damaged a long way from the coast due to the extent of (relatively) inland flooding. The flooding from the Ship Channel was profound as well, and there was a lot of damage inside the city, proper. I'm hoping for a break this year. The Gulf Coast has taken a beating, not necessarily with the most powerful storms, but certainly with larger storms, so that even if the eye is due to make landfall over one area, there is still impact, sometimes as much as 100 miles away, and with Ike, for example, that impact can be substantial. DC
< Message edited by CallaFirestormBW -- 8/21/2009 8:16:32 AM >
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