causing massive traffic jams. It took 12 hours to go from Jacksonville to Tallahassee instead of 2 and one half hours. Officials were lucky. I-10 choked down to one lane West of Tallahassee because of construction (resurfacing). Baaaad timing. If the storm had hit the populated areas with that many people in cars, many lives could have been lost. Evacuation orders should be staggered with the people in low lying areas near the coast are the first to go and then as traffic thins out, tell the next group to leave. Would lives be saved if the winds were 150 miles per hour at the coast and 300,000 people were only able to move inland 50 miles or less due to the traffic jams? They may have been better off at home so long as they were not at risk of flooding. Now next time, they may be reluctant to evacuate and the storm could be worse and cause real damage. Now we have a declared disaster that didn't happen. That may be better than Andrew where it took days to get the funds to Florida because "no one requested them" Honest. Government in action.

What if a loss of electricity, water and sewers etc. results in a mass unordered and uncoordinated evacuation of these cities again due to Y2k problems? Similar traffic jams will occur, people will run out of gas, and the tank of gas that was planned to go 300 miles will only go 150 miles due to the stop and go traffic jams. Local officials saw what happened this time. Will they take action to prevent some people leaving the city for a Y2k event to avoid these traffic jams in the future? It could become violent out there especially at night with stalled cars all over the roads. At the first hint of trouble, have a destination in mind and hit the road before the mob decides to move too. By then, it will be too late.

This was a good wakeup call.

-- Moe (Moe@3stooges.gom), September 16, 1999

Answers

Hey Moe,

Did you happen to notice the two completely empty lanes on the other side of the highway? Led by two cruisers with their flashers on traffic could have been split utilizing the southbound lanes for northbound travel to help the exodus.

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), September 17, 1999.

Total fiasco. Big Clue.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 17, 1999.

Why are we talking evacuation? If y2k strikes everyone, everywhere, at the same time then no one will evacuate anywhere.

-- lars (lars@indy.net), September 17, 1999.

Lars, the nature of "localized Y2K problems" is such that failures may not strike everyone, everywhere, at the same time. Just because the lights go out in my community does not mean they will in yours. Just because the water system in your city does not work does not mean that it will be universal. It's not all or nothing.

That's why things like these hurricanes are being watched with so much interest. If the water does not work in ONE community for more than about 72 hours, you can be sure there will be evacuations.

-- (pshannon@inch.com), September 17, 1999.

I use I-10 to get to work plus a smaller road Highway 90.I-10 was jam-packed west-bound 50 miles from Jacksonville but Highway 90 runs from Jacksonville to Lake City and it had only moderate traffic. If you ever have to evacuate,try using smaller roads instead of Interstates,you will get out a lot faster.

-- Stanley Lucas (StanleyLucas@WebTv.net), September 17, 1999.

I believe closer scrutiny will show that the correct appellation for the recent storm is Floyd.

-- Henry Higgins, Litt. D., F.R.S., A.A.R.P. (details_details@~history.edu), September 17, 1999.

The problem with a Y2K related collapse of infrastructure is going to be the exact opposite of the hurricane problem. There's a big difference between the potential for 150mph winds and 20 ft storm surges and the power being out. Rightly or wrongly, everyone will assume that the problem will soon be fixed. They won't WANT to leave.

Eventually thirst and hunger will force them to leave, but I don't think many people will be saying, "Whoaa! There go the lights, I'm outta here."

Between the desire to conserve fuel, and the need to stay home and protect the turf, if anything, the roads will be less crowded than usual.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), September 18, 1999.