Stranded on the I10 Bridge during Ivan..

[vbhoutex]

I do not know of any contingency plans, but I have not researched it either. I do remember, hopefully correctly, that they need at least 30 hours lead time to fully evacuate the island and that lead time needs to be ahead of the time the winds and/or tides prevent use of those two routes. Tides would probably negate the use of the San Luis Toll very early since the West end of the island is very flat and I don't think those approaches are more the 6' above MSL at high tide. I could be mistaken, but that is what I remember. I-45 used to be only 6' above MSL but I think they have raised it some, but again I may be incorrect there too. I jsut know I wouldn't want to be caught on that island in anything above a high CAT2 or low CAT3! I have some books at home from the 2003 Hou/GAL Hurricane Conference that may address this. I will try and remember to check on that if I can.

[Opal storm]

Man this sounds fake,I'm sorry but I don't believe this.Why didn't we here about this before?

[GulfBreezer]

It is a true story ...they did in depth coverage on WEAR 3 yesterday and this morning. His car was shown on the bridge right before the cave in. From my understanding, the family did not want to tell their story until now. I don't know the reason. CLosing that bridge would be a catastrophe if they do it too early. But it should definitely be closed at a certain point. THat is the main problem here, we are surrounded by bridges and have to go over them to get out as well as back in. There is a special on channel 3 tonight called the Year of Hurricanes 2005.

[iceangel]

There is a special on channel 3 tonight called the Year of Hurricanes 2005.

The special is on tomorrow night..5-27-05. Here's the info....
http://weartv.com/news/Stories/may/0518 ... 0518.shtml

Also. I think the reason that the story hasn't been told until now is because the family is having a very difficult time with their experiance.

[Stratosphere747]

I do not know of any contingency plans, but I have not researched it either. I do remember, hopefully correctly, that they need at least 30 hours lead time to fully evacuate the island and that lead time needs to be ahead of the time the winds and/or tides prevent use of those two routes. Tides would probably negate the use of the San Luis Toll very early since the West end of the island is very flat and I don't think those approaches are more the 6' above MSL at high tide. I could be mistaken, but that is what I remember. I-45 used to be only 6' above MSL but I think they have raised it some, but again I may be incorrect there too. I jsut know I wouldn't want to be caught on that island in anything above a high CAT2 or low CAT3! I have some books at home from the 2003 Hou/GAL Hurricane Conference that may address this. I will try and remember to check on that if I can.

I agree VB that San Luis would not be much of a viable ecav route...

This is a subject that deserves a whole new thread...

[tallywx]

The thing that strikes me as odd is the entire Morse code thing with the headlights to stop the police car. c'mon!

and what about the cars "disappearing" behind them? do we actually know of any vehicles that plain fell off the bridge other than the front of that 18-wheeler?

And finally, they recount all this as occurring at 11:30 p.m. At that time, the hurricane was still offshore by a few hours, and the surge I don't think was high enough to be destroying the bridge already.

(edit: so I stand corrected about the surge. at that time, the tide gauge at pensacola was recording water that was 6.5 feet above normal and rising rapidly, so that's already a significant surge. didn't realize it had built up so high that far in advance of the eye).

[vbhoutex]

I found some information. It is in the book I mentioned from the 2003 Hou/GAl Hurricane Workshop.

"Estimates for a full evacuation, which would be needed for a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane, are that nearly 30 hours would be needed just to get all the people out of the surge-risk areas....In order for a full evacuation to be successful, decisions need to be made at least 36 hours before the onset of adverse conditions, or somewhere between 42 and 48 hours before landfall of the eye!

For most approaching hurricanes the weather will be blue skies, sunshine and light winds 42 to 48 hours before landfall of the eye. The average track error is still 150 miles at 48 hours....Recent evacuation experiences...suggests that about 70 perscent of those people who should have evacuated actually did. Applied to the Houston/Galveston/Brazoria area, the remaining 30 percent represents about 200,000 people! In a worse case scenario where we experience the direct hit of a large Category 4 or 5 hurricane, that means thousands of people will be left in their homes to experience flood waters being driven by winds in excess of 100 mph. ..."

So I was pretty close in what I said. It definitely is not a good situation.

[mobilebay]

I'm sorry. I agree with some of the others after thinking about this. I think this may have been based on a true story, but there is no way all that happened.