I would definately leave. I have 3 young boys and wouldn't risk it. I would take my chances getting stuck in traffic. Knowing how long it takes to evacute I would try to leave early and maybe bring a gas can with extra gas.
I hope we never find out but I think it is only a matter of time :(

I'd have been gone knowing it was crossing the gulf at some point. It was bound to turn into something major. I'm just not one to take chances after the year we've had. I'd have been gone already when it hit Key West.

But then, I used to be the only person to board up for tropical storms...not anymore.

I keep being haunted by the image of the few cars on the bridge out of New Orliens. Being stuck in your car, unable to get to safety, is not much safer than being in most houses.

Yesterday I heard story of a 73 yr old woman sitting in a bus station that just about broke my heart.I thought about how so many older folks have no cars, live on fixed incomes, & may not have any nearby family to come to their aid = (

Just heard something terrible about a bus of elderly/disabled folks w/ oxygen tanks burning up!

& here's more....

Here is a link that might be useful: No Way Out

What did they do with the people in the Astrodome? It seems to be a nightware there, with thousands of people stuck in traffic, running out of gas on the freeway.

I have a mapped evacuation route laid out that doesn't include one mile of freeway. I'd never try to get out of here on I-75 if I had to evacuate.

Unfortunately so many of the right answers come after the disaster.

Without knowing many of the details, I was surprised that the husband and wife in New Orleans were charged with 34 counts of manslaughter for leaving the elderly patients. Not only is it difficult to move the elderly, it is very stressful on them.

Now you have this bus with 24 elderly dead from the fire and quite possibly, didn't need to be evacuated if the storm continues farther north than predicted.

After the fact it is too easy to second guess other people's decisions.

Gene and I are of the mind we would stay. We don't live on the coast, our house is old and solid, and we would be able to do just fine with the amount of supplies we have and with our camping skills. We'd rather be there to protect our home and animals. I have too many cats to try to find shelter for, and there's no way I'd ever leave them behind. That's not an option. Of course, I was shaking in my boots thinking about being in the path of a Katrina... I told Gene, I think I'd leave if that was headed for me. But we are in the middle of the state, we don't have flooding... we'd probably lose the roof, though... so we came back around to the original plan of not leaving. It's a tough call, that's for certain.

I went to college in Galveston and was there for four years. I have several friends who still live in the Houston/Galveston area. I've heard from most and the reports for them were 8 hours to San Antonio, 14 from League City to Ft. Worth and just other horrendous stories of it. I went through TS Frances in 1998 and TS Allison in 2001 there. Galveston floods very easily, even in just a strong thunderstorm. I'm not looking forward to the damage reports.

I agree with Nicki, sometimes its better to just ride it out. Of course, I evacuated when Hurricane Opal came through Pensacola. It took me 12 hours to get out of Escambia County. When we finally got to North Alabama we were almost killed when a huge tree came down within inches of our car thanks to Tornadoes.

I did not evacuate any hurricanes last year. I was completely flooded out for months but I stayed until the water actually got under the house (It was on a hill surrounded with water) and made it structurally unsafe. I canoed in and out. Then I just had to go to shelters or camp out until I found a fellow teacher who let me stay with her. I didnÂt have any family in the area and leaving to go to Alabama would have meant leaving work which I didnÂt want to do.

However, unlike most I have no children to worry about. If I had children it would be another story. On my own I am confident of my camping abilities. I have been an avid camper most of my life and I lily have enough supplies in the house to manage at least 30 days with food and medicine. My doctor even managed to give me an extra prescription of my important medication in case of such an incident. I also have enough containers to store at least that much water.

Most of the time if you donÂt live on the actual coastline you can manage during the storm. The flooding and lack of services after is the worst of it for most of us. Now if I lived on the coast or in a mobile home Id be getting the heck outta Dodge.

21/2 million people at $500 each=11/4 dollars spent on the evacuation.Mostly wasted.sounds like a lot of knee jerks listening to the nervous nellie talking heads.No one was predicting the hurricane would swing south so why were they telling everyone to head north?