Irma evacuees say they don’t want to Lo throulh it alain
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — After a painful flight across several states to escape unpredictable Hurricane Irma, Suzanne Pallot says it’s unlikely she would evacuate South Florida again — an attitude echoed by other evacuees that experts say could put them in danger when the next storm hits.
“It is a very emotionally draining thing to go through … the anticipation of what is next and not having control of what is next,” Pallot, 73, said in an interview from her cousin’s home in Memphis, Tennessee.
About 7 million people were asked to evacuate as Irma threatened Florida and the Southeast with strong winds and storm surge that in some places was forecast to push water as high as the rooftops of single-story homes.
Some of the tens of thousands who heeded the warnings got stuck in massive traffic jams and waited in hourslong lines at a dwindling number of gas stations still equipped with fuel.
Craig Fugate, a former chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who lives in Gainesville, Florida, and lost power during Irma, said he understands such experiences may lead some to stay home next time in hopes of riding out the storm.
“People start rationalizing, ‘It’s not that bad to stay here,’” Fugate said. “If people in the evacuation zones start drawing this conclusion, that is not a good thing.”
Jennylee Molina says her evacuation put a strain on her family’s finances.
“We’re spending money we really didn’t plan to spend,” said Molina, who with her husband, 7-year-old son and seven other family members first evacuated from Miami to Cartersville, Georgia. When it appeared Irma would head that way, they left for Asheville, North Carolina, eventually ending up in
St. Augustine, Florida, on the state’s northeastern coast.
Before she had a family, her attitude about evacuating was, “We’d have a hurricane party and stock up on beer and junk food. That was more my lifestyle.”
But now, she says, “with a child, I would never stay with a storm at Category 3 or up.”