After Matthew, some second-guess fleeing
MIAMI — Maureen Miller and her family were among the two million residents ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the southeast U.S. ahead of Hurricane Matthew. They spent two nights in a hotel inland, and struggled through roadblocks to return to their unscathed Brunswick, Georgia-area home on Saturday. “I will never evacuate again,” Miller said. “If we stayed, we’d be fine. I’m sure there are a lot of people who feel the same way.” Weather experts and government officials worry that people might be reluctant to evacuate next time, leading to deadly consequences.
“We are a culture that seems to get angry if the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen and we prepare for it,” said Marshall Shepherd, director of the University of Georgia Atmospheric Sciences Program. “I am continually baffled at the people that seem to anger that there is not more loss of life and destruction.” Much of the focus on Hurricane Matthew was its 220 km/h winds, but the evacuations had more to do with storm surge.
“Nine out of 10 people who lose their lives in hurricanes do so from the water, not the wind. And half of those are due to storm surge,” said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center.