1999's Hurricane Floyd sparked the largest peace-time evacuation in American history, and probably the largest traffic jam. As Hurricane Floyd stormed from South Florida to North Carolina, exhausted evacuees found that road trips that normally take two hours took as much as twenty. As the 2000 hurricane season approaches, people who run emergency operations don't want to see a repeat. The biggest problem, according to a new study of the Floyd evacuees, is that as many as a third of the people on the roads didn't need to be there. That means that they evacuated from places that weren't told to evacuate.
People inland are safe in solid homes or shelters.
The study found that many who fled were either confused or just being cautious. When a hurricane is approaching the instinct is to flee. Copyright 2000, CBS Worldwide Inc., All Rights Reserved. Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved.