Where can Floridians go?
Monster storm’s reach likely to cover state, extend beyond
Many evacuees have nowhere to turn
After watching Hurricane Andrew tear the roof off her South Florida home 25 years ago, Mattie Davis knew she didn’t want to stick around and see what Irma has in store.
The only question was where to go.
She thought about Orlando, then saw Irma is projected to still be a major hurricane in that part of the state. Her sister offered to put her up in Savannah, Ga., but Irma could threaten that coastal city as well.
Thursday, Davis packed up her three kids, mother and grandmother and started driving to Atlanta.
“Where else can I go?” said Davis, 33, a school bus driver from the Miami suburb of Cutler Bay. “This hurricane is going to cover the entire state.”
Hurricane Irma has proved a unique challenge for Floridians trying to escape. Such storms usually hit the Sunshine State from the east or west, allowing residents to flee north or south to avoid the damage.
Irma is projected to make an unusual landfall from the south, so the Category 5 behemoth could envelop the entire Florida peninsula.
That has forced evacuees to drive farther north, creating an evacuation route longer than any storm in recent history.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said his office is working with fuel suppliers to ensure that gas stations along the Florida Turnpike, I-95 and I-75 — the main highways leading out of South Florida — are kept open and stocked to accommodate the thousands of cars heading north.
Scott worked with neighboring states and federal agencies to waive weight and driver restrictions to allow more fuel trucks to enter the state. The governor or- dered the Florida Highway Patrol to escort fuel trucks along the entire evacuation route, and he worked with the Department of Defense to arrange a military escort for a fuel tanker headed toward Port Tampa Bay.
“For gas stations in evacuation zones: We need you to stay open as long as possible, so people can get out,” Scott said.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers tried to keep motorists moving along the evacuation route. Highway Patrol spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Montes said the usual number of troopers on duty was doubled, and they were doing ev- erything from clearing crash sites to managing lines at gas stations along the Florida Turnpike.
Traffic on some sections of the turnpike crawled as cars averaged 20 mph, she said. But there were relatively few of those congested pockets, considering the sheer volume of cars heading north.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Montes, who has been a trooper for 23 years. “I think because of Harvey, people are paying more attention, and they got out early.”
The measures have been critical to keep cars moving as Floridians escape to places all over the country. Many are staying in the southeast, but some have gone as far as Michigan and New Jersey.
Ginny Garayta opted for Montgomery, Ala.
She packed a suitcase, important documents and some family photos and drove 15 hours to a friend’s house, arriving early Thursday morning. She spent the past several days scrutinizing the path of Irma, watching as meteorologists shifted the projected landfall from Key West to Naples to Miami.
She decided that north was the only answer.
“They weren’t sure if it was going to hit west or east, and I didn’t want to deal with that uncertainty,” said Garayta, 34, a sales professional who lives five blocks from the ocean in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. “I just wanted to get the heck out.”
Jason Butler came to the same conclusion.
Tired of debating between northern Florida cities that may end up getting hit just as hard as Miami, he took his fiancée’s advice and decided to make a vacation out of their evacuation.
The couple packed up whatever they could from their waterfront apartment in Boynton Beach, scooped up their dog, Brewski, and set out for Tennessee on Thursday.
“There’s nowhere in Florida you can be certain that you’ll be safe,” said Butler, 33, a medical sales representative. “So we said, ‘Why don’t we just check out Nashville?’ She’s always wanted to go, so why not?”