Gulf Coast and East still unprepared for hurricanes..
Moderator: S2k Moderators
I'd have to agree with the poll's findings from speaking to people here on Cape Cod--even those who were here for Hurricane Bob! It seems that very few people make even minimal preparations for anything.
Most figure that "insurance will cover" damage to their property or that the hurricane will "only" be Cat 1 or 2, so it won't do much damage (in spite of the fact that just plain gales take down tree limbs, result in long power outages, etc. In spite of predictions last winter, and in spite of earlier storms, our immediate neighbors did NOT buy groceries, cat food, extra flashlight batteries, etc.--so they ended up borrowing from us. It is sort of annoying.
The "old timers" from Cape Cod figure that their relatives lived through the historic storms of the past, so they apparently weren't that bad. And the newcomers know nothing about the storms of the past....
As far as I can determine, very few prepare for much of anything. Add to that the fact that there is a huge quantity of housing here that is unoccupied a lot of the time--people who only use their houses on weekends, people who use their houses occasionally, etc. So they won't prepare anything at all, nor will they be there to take in lawn furniture and other missiles. And of course there are a lot of elderly people who would need help with any meaningful preparations.
What is really scary is that the tourist population will have no clue about what to do, where to go, how to get off the Cape, etc. and they will be trapped when the bridges are closed. Hell, I can't find the locations where the shelters are allegedly located and I've lived her 6 years! My "nearest" shelter is on the military base and access is restricted, of course, and I'm not sure how I could get to it (I've never been there and don't know where the gates are on this side, although I know its general location) and of course I've no clue whether they would let me in if I got there. So what are tourists supposed to do? The printed maps of the area are very inaccurate--the main street to access our street not only has 4 different names in less than 3 miles, but is shown as a "through" street to a major road--but you need a tank to get through! No car, pickup truck, etc. can get through--even with 4 wheel drive! There is about 50 feet of road missing in the middle--and the road at that point is so narrow that you have to back out. If you don't know where you are going, you can spend an hour driving around (in daylight) looking for your destination.
Worse, perhaps, is the fact that lots of people genuinely do not understand the potential danger. Since we've been here we regularly have reports of people getting swept off the rocks (and drowned) because they ignored warnings about high surf from Florida hurricanes. So these same idiots will probably go down to the beach to watch the hurricane arrive! And they will take their kids, beach umbrellas and picnic lunches....
I did not live here then, but my grandmother owned waterfront property on the Cape in the early 1950s that became underwater property after a 1950s hurricane... So, no, not all the beach cottages survive... But I suspect that the rental property owners would not warn their tenants to not come or to leave because of the potential danger... Add to that the fact that there are international tourists who may not hear warnings, etc. and you have a good recipe for disaster...
I saw the same behavior in Connecticut during 2 hurricanes and the NoName storm... Most people just did nothing. And then they were very upset by the damage they incurred. A lot of it was preventable... At least if they had taken in the damned lawn furniture and other missiles... They all thought we were nuts and paranoid when we prepared, but we were the ones without damage.
Most figure that "insurance will cover" damage to their property or that the hurricane will "only" be Cat 1 or 2, so it won't do much damage (in spite of the fact that just plain gales take down tree limbs, result in long power outages, etc. In spite of predictions last winter, and in spite of earlier storms, our immediate neighbors did NOT buy groceries, cat food, extra flashlight batteries, etc.--so they ended up borrowing from us. It is sort of annoying.
The "old timers" from Cape Cod figure that their relatives lived through the historic storms of the past, so they apparently weren't that bad. And the newcomers know nothing about the storms of the past....
As far as I can determine, very few prepare for much of anything. Add to that the fact that there is a huge quantity of housing here that is unoccupied a lot of the time--people who only use their houses on weekends, people who use their houses occasionally, etc. So they won't prepare anything at all, nor will they be there to take in lawn furniture and other missiles. And of course there are a lot of elderly people who would need help with any meaningful preparations.
What is really scary is that the tourist population will have no clue about what to do, where to go, how to get off the Cape, etc. and they will be trapped when the bridges are closed. Hell, I can't find the locations where the shelters are allegedly located and I've lived her 6 years! My "nearest" shelter is on the military base and access is restricted, of course, and I'm not sure how I could get to it (I've never been there and don't know where the gates are on this side, although I know its general location) and of course I've no clue whether they would let me in if I got there. So what are tourists supposed to do? The printed maps of the area are very inaccurate--the main street to access our street not only has 4 different names in less than 3 miles, but is shown as a "through" street to a major road--but you need a tank to get through! No car, pickup truck, etc. can get through--even with 4 wheel drive! There is about 50 feet of road missing in the middle--and the road at that point is so narrow that you have to back out. If you don't know where you are going, you can spend an hour driving around (in daylight) looking for your destination.
Worse, perhaps, is the fact that lots of people genuinely do not understand the potential danger. Since we've been here we regularly have reports of people getting swept off the rocks (and drowned) because they ignored warnings about high surf from Florida hurricanes. So these same idiots will probably go down to the beach to watch the hurricane arrive! And they will take their kids, beach umbrellas and picnic lunches....
I did not live here then, but my grandmother owned waterfront property on the Cape in the early 1950s that became underwater property after a 1950s hurricane... So, no, not all the beach cottages survive... But I suspect that the rental property owners would not warn their tenants to not come or to leave because of the potential danger... Add to that the fact that there are international tourists who may not hear warnings, etc. and you have a good recipe for disaster...
I saw the same behavior in Connecticut during 2 hurricanes and the NoName storm... Most people just did nothing. And then they were very upset by the damage they incurred. A lot of it was preventable... At least if they had taken in the damned lawn furniture and other missiles... They all thought we were nuts and paranoid when we prepared, but we were the ones without damage.
0 likes
Persepone wrote:I'd have to agree with the poll's findings from speaking to people here on Cape Cod--even those who were here for Hurricane Bob! It seems that very few people make even minimal preparations for anything.
Most figure that "insurance will cover" damage to their property or that the hurricane will "only" be Cat 1 or 2, so it won't do much damage (in spite of the fact that just plain gales take down tree limbs, result in long power outages, etc. In spite of predictions last winter, and in spite of earlier storms, our immediate neighbors did NOT buy groceries, cat food, extra flashlight batteries, etc.--so they ended up borrowing from us. It is sort of annoying.
The "old timers" from Cape Cod figure that their relatives lived through the historic storms of the past, so they apparently weren't that bad. And the newcomers know nothing about the storms of the past....
As far as I can determine, very few prepare for much of anything. Add to that the fact that there is a huge quantity of housing here that is unoccupied a lot of the time--people who only use their houses on weekends, people who use their houses occasionally, etc. So they won't prepare anything at all, nor will they be there to take in lawn furniture and other missiles. And of course there are a lot of elderly people who would need help with any meaningful preparations.
What is really scary is that the tourist population will have no clue about what to do, where to go, how to get off the Cape, etc. and they will be trapped when the bridges are closed. Hell, I can't find the locations where the shelters are allegedly located and I've lived her 6 years! My "nearest" shelter is on the military base and access is restricted, of course, and I'm not sure how I could get to it (I've never been there and don't know where the gates are on this side, although I know its general location) and of course I've no clue whether they would let me in if I got there. So what are tourists supposed to do? The printed maps of the area are very inaccurate--the main street to access our street not only has 4 different names in less than 3 miles, but is shown as a "through" street to a major road--but you need a tank to get through! No car, pickup truck, etc. can get through--even with 4 wheel drive! There is about 50 feet of road missing in the middle--and the road at that point is so narrow that you have to back out. If you don't know where you are going, you can spend an hour driving around (in daylight) looking for your destination.
Worse, perhaps, is the fact that lots of people genuinely do not understand the potential danger. Since we've been here we regularly have reports of people getting swept off the rocks (and drowned) because they ignored warnings about high surf from Florida hurricanes. So these same idiots will probably go down to the beach to watch the hurricane arrive! And they will take their kids, beach umbrellas and picnic lunches....
I did not live here then, but my grandmother owned waterfront property on the Cape in the early 1950s that became underwater property after a 1950s hurricane... So, no, not all the beach cottages survive... But I suspect that the rental property owners would not warn their tenants to not come or to leave because of the potential danger... Add to that the fact that there are international tourists who may not hear warnings, etc. and you have a good recipe for disaster...
I saw the same behavior in Connecticut during 2 hurricanes and the NoName storm... Most people just did nothing. And then they were very upset by the damage they incurred. A lot of it was preventable... At least if they had taken in the damned lawn furniture and other missiles... They all thought we were nuts and paranoid when we prepared, but we were the ones without damage.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=I ... gle+Search
0 likes
Yup. I checked the map.
The Military Reservation shelter on the map is the nearest to my house. However, the only route shown to it is from FALMOUTH--which means that I would have to drive all the way around the bottom on the Cape on Route 28 (2 lane highway that is ordinarily very overcrowded) that leads to the bridge off Cape and then backtrack into main gates--and presently those are closed to civilian personnel. But it would take me 45 minutes-1 hour in normal traffic to get there even though I live less than 1 mile away from it!
The Oak Ridge and Marstons Mills elementary schools are the next closest and I did, with a lot of trouble, find them so actually I do now know where they are--but I would not like to try to locate them quickly in emergency (which is why I did scout them out and I have to say it took me about 40 minutes to find how to get to each of them--and I live nearby! so I "knew" the area before I went to look for them. I don't know what the stated capacity for those shelters are, but they are very small schools and they can't possibly hold that many people--the Marstons Mills Elementary school could probably hold 100-150 people. We're talking THOUSANDS of tourists in the summer here... The year round population is a tiny fraction of the summer population (hence the small schools). From our neighborhood the Marstons Mills school probably would be inaccessible because the roads between the school and us are routinely covered with water during normal run of the mill rainstorms... People around here know that and drive through slowly, but all you need is one out of towner to stall out and the roads are blocked (one lane each direction). I just don't see how they expect to cram all the tourists + local population into those shelters and I can see a huge mess on the roads trying to get to them. In the summer many of the roads here are a total mess normally--like it can take you an hour to go 15-20 miles type mess. Think driving down the main drag in Key West the day of their big outdoor art show festival... 5 mph?
So, no, I don't think that the emergency plan you cite is worth the paper it is printed on. I would not even try to get to any of those shelters in an emergency. I don't foresee those shelters being able to accommodate both the locals who need them and the tourists... I think the "plan" might be a starting point for a plan, but as written I don't think it is workable.
The Military Reservation shelter on the map is the nearest to my house. However, the only route shown to it is from FALMOUTH--which means that I would have to drive all the way around the bottom on the Cape on Route 28 (2 lane highway that is ordinarily very overcrowded) that leads to the bridge off Cape and then backtrack into main gates--and presently those are closed to civilian personnel. But it would take me 45 minutes-1 hour in normal traffic to get there even though I live less than 1 mile away from it!
The Oak Ridge and Marstons Mills elementary schools are the next closest and I did, with a lot of trouble, find them so actually I do now know where they are--but I would not like to try to locate them quickly in emergency (which is why I did scout them out and I have to say it took me about 40 minutes to find how to get to each of them--and I live nearby! so I "knew" the area before I went to look for them. I don't know what the stated capacity for those shelters are, but they are very small schools and they can't possibly hold that many people--the Marstons Mills Elementary school could probably hold 100-150 people. We're talking THOUSANDS of tourists in the summer here... The year round population is a tiny fraction of the summer population (hence the small schools). From our neighborhood the Marstons Mills school probably would be inaccessible because the roads between the school and us are routinely covered with water during normal run of the mill rainstorms... People around here know that and drive through slowly, but all you need is one out of towner to stall out and the roads are blocked (one lane each direction). I just don't see how they expect to cram all the tourists + local population into those shelters and I can see a huge mess on the roads trying to get to them. In the summer many of the roads here are a total mess normally--like it can take you an hour to go 15-20 miles type mess. Think driving down the main drag in Key West the day of their big outdoor art show festival... 5 mph?
So, no, I don't think that the emergency plan you cite is worth the paper it is printed on. I would not even try to get to any of those shelters in an emergency. I don't foresee those shelters being able to accommodate both the locals who need them and the tourists... I think the "plan" might be a starting point for a plan, but as written I don't think it is workable.
0 likes
Return to “Hurricane Preparation”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests