A multi-state study done by the Army Corps of Engineers showed 90 percent of Savannahians in the Category 1 surge zone evacuated. The only place that compared with those figures was Beaufort S.C., where an estimated 88 percent left town. In Charleston and northeast Florida, the figure was closer to 80 percent. Jeff Griffith, a district planning and programming engineer for the Georgia DOT, predicted people would think twice about staying if another Floyd-sized hurricane threatened. Floyd was six times as big as Hurricane Andrew, Griffith said.
Life is evacuation.
It really boils down to that. That doesn't mean it's impossible to survive a direct hurricane hit. There, they've fortified some buildings and figured out the best places to wait out flooding. Savannah has hundreds of buildings that have survived more than 100 years of the worst weather disasters. Newer buildings, especially those on the islands, can't make the same claim.