Pop Quiz.

[theweaselking]

For the purposes of this question, please ignore certain geographical impossibilities, such as your living in the midwest and being a thousand miles away from any large body of water.

Here's the scenario: imagine that you're doing exactly what you're doing right now. There've been rumblings in the news of an extremely severe storm that might come your way. Suddenly, you are given notice -- perhaps from your supervisor at work, a phone call, email or instant message from a family member or friend, a civil defense announcement on TV or radio -- that the order to evacuate is given. The storm is headed right for your town, and it is expected to be a category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale: winds at 150 miles per hour (250 kilometres per hour), trees blown down, damage and even complete destruction to houses and buildings. The evacuation order says that the safe distance is at least 150 miles (250 kilometres), which you can assume to be a two and one-half hour trip under normal conditions. You have 24 hours before the storm is expected to hit.

Assume that you have only the resources available to you, in their current state. Do you have a car, is it working and is the tank full of gas? If not, can you arrange for a ride? Are you at work, and how long would it take you to get home to collect your things under normal circumstances? How about during a general evacuation? Where would you go? Is there somewhere you can stay where you're going? Whom would you take with you? What would you take with you?
Additional Scenario Twists
For an additional challenge, add these twists to the scenario:

* The Joey twist: Your father, who lives in the same town as you, is handicapped and walks slowly with a walker. He also takes insulin before each meal, which means you need to stock up.
* The Joey's sister twist, part 1: You have three kids, aged 4, 2 and 4 months.
* The Joey's sister twist, part 2: You are the assistant health director for the region; they're going to call on you for emergency duty. And yes, you still have the kids.
* The new kid in town twist: You just moved into town, don't have a car and know almost no one.
* The "the Weather Channel screwed up again!" twist: They were right about the storm, but wrong about the time -- you have 12 hours before it hits.

You've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

Comments

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

The only people I am 100% sure woud give me a place stay live a mere 80 miles north of me.
Chris' twist: Your son lives 45 minutes south of you, in the path of the storm.

[eididdy.livejournal.com]

I may be 9 hours away, but you can be 100% sure that you'd be welcome here.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Simple: No, I don't feel lucky.

But I might get a ride.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

I'd have to look it up for comfirmation, but a Cat5 is 155mph minimum sustained, not 150 IIRC. As for the rest, I've been there (although Va. Beach is far enough north that what starts as a cat 4 or 5 is medium cat3 at best upon arrival due to cooler waters at that latitude). The part you're leaving out in your twists are that there are only a few routes out (we could head west on I64, US460, or US58 (Pretty sure thats a US route, but may be a VA State route)). US460 and 58 are 4 lane roads now, but they weren't as little as 10 years ago, and I64 can't handle normal local traffic, much less a mass evacuation. North is US 13 across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay onto the Eastern Shore of VA and MD, which is an even worse place to be, and south was into the Outer Banks of NC, which is even worse than the Eastern Shore. East is of course the Atlantic Ocean. Oh, and all of these ways out involve bottlenecks over bridges and/or through tunnels.

I've ridden out more than 12 hurricanes in my lifetime. By all rights, I'm overdue for death by natural disaster.

[annewashere.livejournal.com]

My mother lives 4 hours away, I would go there. I have absolutely no idea what I would take, and would probably get it wrong.

The first two twists, they would be coming with me. The third, I would have to get my kids out somehow - probably by sending them with a relative also heading to my mothers (it would be the default evacuation location for a lot of family, I think). The fourth, I am fucked. The fifth, probably also fucked. It would take at least eight hours to get on the road, but if I had to include the insulin, that is probably out the window.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

I would grab the home kit, the papers, and the cat, and drive up to a friend's place in the mountains. It's not 150 miles inland. It is, however, on high ground with a ridge between it and the coast.

If I were at work, I would try my damnedest to get home first, because, you know, cat. (Which also answers twist 1, sorta.)

Twist 4 would be hardest and pretty much describes my situation nine years ago (with the exception of my then-roommate). I'd probably be hitching.

Right now it would take about two hours to get on the road. I'm trying to reduce that because Seattle has a limited number of ways out, many of which rely on bridges. (Which is why I have preliminary plans for evacuation by foot and bicycle.)

My emergency plans are geared toward something of a different nature than a hurricane, though. Earthquakes strike without warning, and the open question is always whether roads will be passable in the aftermath. The Nisqually quake make the viaduct, one of the major routes through downtown, impassable for a time. A harder quake (such as the one we can expect from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, expected to lower the waterfront by 20 feet) would probably knock it down. Ditto for some of our bridges, including at least one of the two across Lake Washington.

This is why my plans include evacuation by foot. Cars'll get you farther in a shorter time, but walkers can go places cars can't.

I also have a plan for digging in and staying after a quake. This includes being on cordial terms with my immediate neighbors and having enough water and food to get by until services are restored. If the quake is bad enough to create a situation like in NOLA, where it's likely to be months before the city is inhabitable, I'd leave. But if we're talking a few days to a week, I'd rather stay than go.

I need to reconsider my decision not to own a firearm, though. The meth problem around here is getting really bad.

[stormfeather.livejournal.com]

Actually my situation is similar to twist #1... whether I evacuated or not would probably depend on how stubborn my mother was being, and I have no clue how long it'd take us to go. She has one leg, is wheelchair bound (her blood pressure is bad enough that at the moment at least it precludes using her artificial leg), is tied to insulin twice a day (plus eating regular meals), and must also take various meds each day (including a nitroglycerine patch). She also every few months or so tends to build up a couple pounds of fluid and need to go into the hospital to get it pumped out. And she's had two heart attacks already. So yeah, just deciding to "up n' git" is difficult at best.

An additional problem is a) I can't think of anyone I know offhand that's both far enough away from the storm and also within, say, a full day's drive that'd be able/willing to take us in. And trying to get a hotel with my cat and the family dog and my bird (and no I am NOT leaving them behind) would also be a chore.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

Honest truth? I'd go to sandusky (only 2 hours or so, but close enough) and I'd phone all my friends on the way out (stopping home to get gothpanda and the dog). I'd give them all the address and tell them they're welcome to come by. everyone I have a number for anyway. And since I'm a geek i'd drop it onto my lj before I left. I would not wait even one minute before doing this. Maybe a few minutes to shut down my computer system and pack it into teh car, but that's it, and I'd rather just create a backup disk for that.

Other than my data, I wouldn't worry about a thing. I often have enough gas to get to sandusky and I'm not above siphoning some on the way 9though in reality, I suspect that if I have enough to get 45 minutes or so I could find a place to get gas, even if it was hugely expensive).

So I think i'd do ok.

But then again, I'm not poor and I have a car and It's reliable.

Also, it's safe to say that the 2 hour car trip would take about five because of traffic. I don't have enough gas for 5 hours of driving (esspecially stop and go) so I'd have no choice but to fill up. Fortunately I'm physically dangerous and have said before that I have zero trouble hurting others for my own survival (we'll call that nature).

If I had 3 kids . . . well, I'd have a different car that would hold 3 kids, but I'd bring them.

If I had a sickly father I'd make a very solid effort to take him with me.

If I had a job to do here I'd tell them to blow me.

If I had no car i'd start walking. I can get at least 36 miles in 12 hours. Hitchhiking is a good option here. So is stealing a car. I can't hotwire a car, so finding a house with 2 cars and taking one is a good option there.

[allysonsedai.livejournal.com]

My husband & I share a car, so he'd pick up our daughter from daycare, and then me at home (I work at night, so assuming it comes in the daytime, I'd be at home). I'd take change of clothes, toiletries, important documents, photo albums, and formula. 20 minutes packing, flat - I'd be faster under stress. Yes, we'd have various places to stay.

Insulin: Easy. I'd just stop by work and grab a vial. Morals? Who needs 'em.
Various kids: No different. Just stuff 'em in the car.
Asst. health director: Family leaves, I stay behind.
New kid: Attempt to get a rental car. Otherwise, I guess I'm riding it out.
12 hours: Depends on the traffic out of town. I sure don't want to be stuck in my car when it hits.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

Except for the fact that I'm a doctor, which means I might not be given the option of leaving (having discovered on 9/11 that there's something called NDMS), I grew up being told what to do and where to go in an emergency. Every so often we'd have little family drills. There was always a sort of disaster kit and if I wasn't able to get to my house, there were other places I was supposed to go. All this notwithstanding, none of this supposed that we had to get out of town.

If I had to do that now, I'd be in trouble, since I just moved and my stuff is disorganized. I'm also in an area with pretty limited exit routes, although it's better than living in, say, Long Island. I never have less than half a tank of gas, but that's a side effect of growing up in the Great White North, where that half a tank could mean life or death if you got stuck in a white out. Sitting in a traffic jam'll eat up your gas pretty quickly, though.

I don't have family or friends here, but if I did, I'd probably call one of them as I was heading for my car, tell them to call whoever else we needed to get, decide on a specific time and place to meet asap, go home, throw some stuff into a suitcase, including checkbook/credit cards/passport/cell phone and charger/laptop and charger (I do know where that stuff is, since I had to have it with me to move), fill up my tank, meet up with whomever, go get anyone else if we needed to do that and hit the road to the nearest large city away from the direction the weather was coming from and worry about finding food and shelter when we were out of the danger zone. If I was lucky, that might get me/us on the road in 2 hours. Ha. This is why I need to get my pilot's license. Like I could get a flight plan cleared under those circumstances.

About the job - if I did get to leave, I'd come back to help whoever got stuck afterwards.

[iamdazey.livejournal.com]

Well, I live in Boise, Idaho. And I'm lucky - I have a car. But I'm a single mom of one child and I never have a lot of extra money just hanging out in my bank account. So, I'd probably be okay if I could load everything into a car and drive away, but I'd have virtually no place to stay if I couldn't stay here, because all of my friends live in town and my closest family is in Texas, which is several days away by car. *shakes head*

If my friends and I could coordinate our efforts and leave in a train of vehilces with all our crap and all our kids, we could probably chip in for a hotel, for a little while at least. But that's only if I could get a hold of them during the evacuation.

Basically, I completely identify with the poor people in the South because, well, I'd be in their shoes if Idaho ever suffered a natural disaster.

[jerril]

I have no car. My mother thank god has a minivan, so assuming she could get over the damn river without getting eaten by evacuation traffic, we'd go with her and squeeze the dogs in somehow without them eating each other. Boxes would be involved I assume. All I need to bring is the computer tower, my toilet kit (always packed), and some clothes, easily packed.

Twist 1: Make sure you have all of his papers and current prescription, and hit the first clinic and/or pharmacy you find outside of the blast area. This presumes, of course, that I have a vehicle. Otherwise we're both fucked.

Twist 2: more packing, hope to god I own a station wagon or van.
Twist 3: If my partner actually drove, I'd send him with the kids. As is, I'd send them with Mom.
Twist 4: Can't rent one? Can't get a bus ticket? Two plans. Fail to Plan B if Plan A fails.
Plan A: depend on the kindness of strangers and start begging my neighbors to take me along. In this scenario, I pack extra light: some undies and socks stuffed in toilet kit, my hard drives, and however many spare shirts I can jamn on top of everything else in my backpack. Makes me less of a burden.
Plan B: Same packing, but walk. Hitch where possible, but otherwise keep an eye out for sturdy terrain features, such as stout overpasses, stable looking cliffs with few/zero trees, etc. Also keep an eye out for poorly-secured bicycles because Dude - wheels are faster. I have enough credit on the card to get me a crappy motel room for a night or two once I reach someplace safe. After that, kindess of strangers again. Write an IOU and get them to photocopy my drivers licence or something.

Unfortunately in 12 hours, I probably won't get further than 24 miles on foot, more likely 20 or 18 as I'm gimpy and will be limping for most of it. On the plus side, walking with a cane or crutches and being a young woman gets you a hell of a lot of sympathy. I'll need one and possibly the other if I'm going for 12 hours on foot, but if needs must, I will. I thank god can walk in my sleep without tripping, so with the 24 hour scenario, assuming i don't totally dislocate something, I can probably make it out far enough to survive although I'll be a total cripple at the end of it.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

Why don't you have a bicycle already? A Walmart bike[1] will only cost you $60 and it's at least even odds that it will last the hundred or two hundred miles you'll be able to pedal in an emergency. If you adjust the thing properly once you have it (almost suggest you ask the walmart people to not even take it out of its box cause they'll only screw it up anyway), it won't even really be all that inefficient, until the first breakdown at least.


[1] The canonical example is the Roadmaster Fury, but this is a region of price where minor extra spending is still getting you huge improvements.

[dscotton.livejournal.com]

I think I'm actually pretty well prepared for something like that, mainly by virtue of being young and well off. The only scenarios that worry me are the children and the sick father scenarios, and that's because taking care of children or a sick father sounds overwhelming to me with or without an impending hurricane.

Sadly, I'm a lot less prepared for the disaster that may actually occur where I am, an earthquake. I need to stock up on water and food that will keep.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

I'm currently home alone with the cats, so no car, no driver's license. It'd take me an hour or two to close all the windows, get out my backpack, get on my bike, and start riding until the traffic jams beside me clear up and I can hopefully hitch from there, and/or check into an hotel. I should be able to maintain 10-20 km/h for at least 8 hours, even in my crappy physical condition, and alongside the traffic jams I'll be faster than the rest. If the Weather Channel screwed up and it was 12 hours, I'd be dead. A lot deader than if I stayed inside.

I'm currently just about above sea level by virtue of not being on the ground floor. I might just go into the city (higher ground) and see if any buildings would let me in. They're all several centuries old so they can take a little storm. Many of them survived the 1674 storm, heavy hurricane force winds, which blew down the entire nave of the gothic-style Dom cathedral here which had only just been built.

Then again, we have functioning buses and train systems and a functioning government whose evacuation plan isn't simply "everybody grab your car! What do you mean, you have no car? Oh well, sucks to be you.".

[zenten.livejournal.com]

I'd try to bum a ride with someone (you'd be on the list of people to call), after getting Kerry, my backpack, and something to read.

However, I have the advantage that it's much easier to get out of Ottawa than new orleans.