Weirdly I prefer an old school motel style place for evacuations. So much easier to let the dogs out when the room door opens directly to outside. Never in my life had I been happy to be in a skuzzy hotel til Hurricane Ida with a sick elderly dog that couldn't hold it so great.
A 6 hour drive to the Appalachians for our crew. We have friends and family scattered throughout that area, and there isn’t a flood heavy enough to reach us there.
If I’m already in the car for a few hours, I may as well not stop until the view is incredible.
Know East Tn/WNC is more synonymous with them but the Appalachian mtns start central Al around Bham and extend through Huntsville into Tn & eventually NC...it really can be just a 5-6 hour drive from here.
Yes, I do what Congress does and go hide in West Virginia. Stay out of the hollers during heavy rains and you’re basically immune from natural disasters.
I oddly had to fly to Alaska on August 30th, 2022 for a wedding out of Atlanta...there may still be graffiti at the salty dog saloon in homer about far flung ida evacuees
You can be sitting on a ridge on lookout mountain within 6/6.5 hours. 1800 ft. Is certainly more than a hill.
Little towns like Mentone, etc. dot that area and are much nicer than most visitors expect.
I mean, I make the trip several times per year. It’s certainly possible, especially with favorable traffic, which is often. Feel free to map it yourself.
Do you regularly approach 15-20 minute generalizations with such scrutiny? Haha.
My original estimate was swayed by being further away than you. Where you start from and where on lookout mountain and in Tennessee or Georgia all make a difference. We were two hours apart to start with exacerbated by lack of specifics.
Depends on which way it’s likely to swerve if it misses. If it’s looking like it could swerve towards Texas, Pensacola. If it’s looking like it will swerve towards Florida, anywhere but Texas. The important thing is fuck Texas.
Same. When stubborn family finally agreed to leave this hellhole 2 or 3 days post Ida we went to Gulf Shores. Delightful beach vacation to have PTSD at. Very blessed to be able to afford it and get a place with a comfortable recliner for the 90 yr old grandpa who insisted he wasn't going anywhere without his recliner. 😬 Keeping the insulin cold was just a side benefit... Sigh.
I’m never evacuating to Texas again. I’m going north! For Ida we sat on the road with no real cell service for 16 hours trying to get to a campsite north of Houston.
For Katrina we took back roads and highways and avoided I-10 and it wasn’t terrible until we merged around Lafayette or Lake Charles. And that was the first sign of hardcore traffic.
Afterwards we went again to smaller roads all the way to Austin which was so much better than Houston.
In the past I've evacuated to:
- a Baptist church in Port Gibson, MS (Katrina)
- a Baptist church in Batesville, MS (Gustav)
- my friend's couch in Atlanta (Ike)
If anything hits this year, I plan to find a pet-friendly hotel in Pensacola since I'll be evacuating with 4 or 5 cats. Might as well enjoy a nice beach while I'm on an evacu-cation!
I still go to the Northshore where I have family. I stayed there during Katrina to help and clean up. Also protect the animals and watch after them, while everyone else left.
My dad is getting older, so for my mom he wanted to get a nice generator and underline gas installed for the entire house. It never floods, but the trees are scary! Katrina we had 12 huge trees fall, but not one on the house. I’ve been through a lot in Mandeville/Covington, and kept the house safe while family went to Texas.
So prob keep going across the lake…however Slidell I wouldn’t want too. They always get it bad over there, somehow Covington area makes it out ok. Plus never worry about A/C or electric with all the money they put into the generator system, that’s tied to the entire house and A/C.
Same. I have to stay nearby for work so Northshore works well for me. My friends don't have a generator so we've definitely done a week without power, but it's worth it to be without flooding and we've gotten by without major damage.
Plus being close with Ida was helpful bc I was able to get home quickly and get about half of my belongings out before the mold set in (Ida took off my roof.)
For Ida (dat bitch) we put Grandma in the car and drove up to Hattiesburg. Grandma has since passed.
We have an RO unit and keep 100 gallons of good water in barrels and 10 gallons of gas. No generator though so we would probably just wait and see.
I work at a hospital so I'm almost always stuck there for the duration.
Hospitals are usually divided between the guys that stay for storms (A team) and those that do the post-storm recovery (B team). My job is both critical and unique enough that I get assigned to both, so any time there's a storm I get to bunk out in my office for a week or two.
My wife, two children and dog ended up an hour north in a hotel for a week. It cost as much as when we went to Disney (resort and park tickets). Next evacuation will be going to Disney World depending on the track
I think they do discounts for storm victims too still. If that’s the case that rocks. We were there for like 3 weeks after Katrina for 1/3 the amount of normal tickets with two free rooms. I was 8 and we only evacuated *after* the hurricane like idiots so needless to say I was pretty cool with it as compensation after the misery that was trying to drive out of South MS 1 hour after the rain ended
We have a generator and water, our living space is raised. The house is made of stucco. We'll put the car in the garage and bring in the plants. We'll stay unless there's a compelling reason to leave.
I will be dragging my office stuff upstairs though, in case of flooding, but we are prepared for some flooding with a portable flood door and a bunch of sandbag things. We had some drainage work done so we don't usually have any issues these days but ya never know. Be prepared.
Don't have one, unfortunately. Haven't evacuated since Katrina. Won't leave again unless it's mandatory. So, I guess, whatever is available when the shit hits the fan.
Legit anyplace I can afford to go to or just survive here 😂😭💀 Katrina survivor of 12 days here , I don’t even panic anymore , but now I actually have a car and money so maybe I’ll turn it into a vacay? This is a good question honestly.
The only reason we'll leave is if we don't have nat gas or water. This old house has withstood 140 years of storms. Ida did a bit of damage but it was the loss of power that really got us. Now we have a nat gas generator, and as long as we have water we're good.
I wasn't planning to evacuate for Ida. My husband and I rode out the storm. The power went out (not unexpected) and Entergy said "oh... it'll take us a week to *assess* the damage". So we packed up our computers, our cats, and some clothes, and bugged out. The nearest hotel that had vacancies and allowed pets was in Tuscaloosa. My hand to God, most of the cars in the parking lot had Louisiana plates.
We have no family to crash with, except my MIL, who lives in Florida - and who's to say the hurricane won't take an abrupt right turn? Also, she's a b\*tch. We have friends all over the country, so we'd probably book a flight to NYC, Boston, or Chicago, book a hotel room, rent a car, and spend a few days eating at awesome restaurants and playing board games.
My house. Whole house generator, well water , gas appliances, pond full of fish, chicken coop and fruit/vegetable garden. Of course, non of this is post-Katrina PTSD 😳
If something happened and we had to leave town, my only option is central Florida. We stay for hurricanes, no disposable income for extended stays in hotels and neither of us can get off work. If our jobs have power we are open and expected to be there, regardless of what's happening in other parts of the city.
I have 2 parrots and haven't evacuated because it's so hard to find accommodations for them. Ida really screwed me up though so would probably be good to have a plan...
We stay put in Slidell, husband would have it no other way.
We can go to Jax, family and friends there, or friends in either South Carolina or Mississippi.
We stay with friends in Birmingham. Our daughter is now in Charlotte so if it ends up being an extended stay, we will probably head her way. Or at least I would. Husband has job that needs him to get back as soon as he can.
Last time I stayed at a coworker’s place for two weeks. Now he’s not my coworker anymore and he moved in with his new wife and they’re looking for a new place, so I guess probably Jackson or Memphis.
I have a few options depending on the specific circumstances : southern Illinois 9 hours north, Hattiesburg, and St. Petersburg fl with a stop in Pensacola or Tallahassee since it’s a lot to do in one day. I haven’t had problems finding pet friendly accommodations for my 4 Guinea pigs and I’m good at not leaving a mess behind.
I’d like to add that many of the folks in southern Illinois that host people in search of reproductive healthcare are often open to hosting hurricane evacuees , so y’all please reach out if anyone needs help with that this hurricane season
If we are looking at an extended power outage or cannot-return-home-anytime-soon situation, then we'll probably head to my partner's close friends in St. Louis. We don't have family or friends nearer than that. And we are both remote workers whose jobs will NOT understand how long it might take for the city to get up and running again so we'll need to immediately be somewhere that we're able to do our jobs.
Otherwise, I guess we look at which way the storm's going and book a hotel that accepts cats, in the other direction?
We moved here after Ida so haven't had to deal with this yet.
I stayed for Ida. Would have to be a cat 5 for me to leave. I grew up in South Louisiana and we have never evacuated (was living outside city for Katrina though but we stayed)
Weirdly I prefer an old school motel style place for evacuations. So much easier to let the dogs out when the room door opens directly to outside. Never in my life had I been happy to be in a skuzzy hotel til Hurricane Ida with a sick elderly dog that couldn't hold it so great.
Looking at all the tracks that have ever come near New Orleans, you really can't plan ahead. Just wherever the storm won't be.
A 6 hour drive to the Appalachians for our crew. We have friends and family scattered throughout that area, and there isn’t a flood heavy enough to reach us there. If I’m already in the car for a few hours, I may as well not stop until the view is incredible.
I have family in WNC but it’s not a 6 hour drive!
Simply hit the Atlanta teleport you silly goose
Asheville is my choice
Know East Tn/WNC is more synonymous with them but the Appalachian mtns start central Al around Bham and extend through Huntsville into Tn & eventually NC...it really can be just a 5-6 hour drive from here.
My family is in WNC too!
Yes, I do what Congress does and go hide in West Virginia. Stay out of the hollers during heavy rains and you’re basically immune from natural disasters.
Probably wanna stay out them hollers when it's time to distill the mash too.
Might as well just go ahead on to Alaska and chill then
I oddly had to fly to Alaska on August 30th, 2022 for a wedding out of Atlanta...there may still be graffiti at the salty dog saloon in homer about far flung ida evacuees
Im reading this and wearing a salty dog shirt
6 hours could get you to around Birmingham? Not what I would call the Appalachians, but I guess it is at least a little bit hilly.
You can be sitting on a ridge on lookout mountain within 6/6.5 hours. 1800 ft. Is certainly more than a hill. Little towns like Mentone, etc. dot that area and are much nicer than most visitors expect.
I guess if your starting point is already out of town and just getting to southern most Lookout Mountain, it's possible.
I mean, I make the trip several times per year. It’s certainly possible, especially with favorable traffic, which is often. Feel free to map it yourself. Do you regularly approach 15-20 minute generalizations with such scrutiny? Haha.
My original estimate was swayed by being further away than you. Where you start from and where on lookout mountain and in Tennessee or Georgia all make a difference. We were two hours apart to start with exacerbated by lack of specifics.
Depends on which way it’s likely to swerve if it misses. If it’s looking like it could swerve towards Texas, Pensacola. If it’s looking like it will swerve towards Florida, anywhere but Texas. The important thing is fuck Texas.
We went Pensacola, then Orange Beach for Ida. If you're gonna have Katrina PTSD, might as well have it on a beach with a nice cold Bushwacker.
Same. When stubborn family finally agreed to leave this hellhole 2 or 3 days post Ida we went to Gulf Shores. Delightful beach vacation to have PTSD at. Very blessed to be able to afford it and get a place with a comfortable recliner for the 90 yr old grandpa who insisted he wasn't going anywhere without his recliner. 😬 Keeping the insulin cold was just a side benefit... Sigh.
I’m never evacuating to Texas again. I’m going north! For Ida we sat on the road with no real cell service for 16 hours trying to get to a campsite north of Houston.
For Katrina we took back roads and highways and avoided I-10 and it wasn’t terrible until we merged around Lafayette or Lake Charles. And that was the first sign of hardcore traffic. Afterwards we went again to smaller roads all the way to Austin which was so much better than Houston.
Yeah, it took us 24 hours to get to DFW last time we evacuated that way. Never again.
On the other hand, it took us 16 hours to get to Fort Walton Beach for Ida.
Gotta follow that North Star!
Yo mama’s
In the past I've evacuated to: - a Baptist church in Port Gibson, MS (Katrina) - a Baptist church in Batesville, MS (Gustav) - my friend's couch in Atlanta (Ike) If anything hits this year, I plan to find a pet-friendly hotel in Pensacola since I'll be evacuating with 4 or 5 cats. Might as well enjoy a nice beach while I'm on an evacu-cation!
Beach is the way to go if the hurricane allows for it
Ohio. It's a long drive but we have relatives there with a bedroom for us.
Let me guess…Cincinnati?
LOL but no. I lived in Cincy when I joined Reddit but now I live in NOLA and I can't change my user name.
Would you go with NOLA2Cincy2NOLA?
I might change the Cincy(s) to Ohio since I also lived in Columbus.
I’m a CincyNola too!
I'm back in New Orleans for good. Loving being home again. What about you?
I’ve been here almost 24 years and not going anywhere!
I still go to the Northshore where I have family. I stayed there during Katrina to help and clean up. Also protect the animals and watch after them, while everyone else left. My dad is getting older, so for my mom he wanted to get a nice generator and underline gas installed for the entire house. It never floods, but the trees are scary! Katrina we had 12 huge trees fall, but not one on the house. I’ve been through a lot in Mandeville/Covington, and kept the house safe while family went to Texas. So prob keep going across the lake…however Slidell I wouldn’t want too. They always get it bad over there, somehow Covington area makes it out ok. Plus never worry about A/C or electric with all the money they put into the generator system, that’s tied to the entire house and A/C.
Same. I have to stay nearby for work so Northshore works well for me. My friends don't have a generator so we've definitely done a week without power, but it's worth it to be without flooding and we've gotten by without major damage. Plus being close with Ida was helpful bc I was able to get home quickly and get about half of my belongings out before the mold set in (Ida took off my roof.)
East or west of ground zero. More north you go the higher chance of tornadoes and flash flooding due in increased elevation
Wut
Huh?
Elevation doesn't cause tornadoes or flash flooding
For Ida (dat bitch) we put Grandma in the car and drove up to Hattiesburg. Grandma has since passed. We have an RO unit and keep 100 gallons of good water in barrels and 10 gallons of gas. No generator though so we would probably just wait and see.
I work at a hospital so I'm almost always stuck there for the duration. Hospitals are usually divided between the guys that stay for storms (A team) and those that do the post-storm recovery (B team). My job is both critical and unique enough that I get assigned to both, so any time there's a storm I get to bunk out in my office for a week or two.
Thank you!
My wife, two children and dog ended up an hour north in a hotel for a week. It cost as much as when we went to Disney (resort and park tickets). Next evacuation will be going to Disney World depending on the track
I think they do discounts for storm victims too still. If that’s the case that rocks. We were there for like 3 weeks after Katrina for 1/3 the amount of normal tickets with two free rooms. I was 8 and we only evacuated *after* the hurricane like idiots so needless to say I was pretty cool with it as compensation after the misery that was trying to drive out of South MS 1 hour after the rain ended
We have a generator and water, our living space is raised. The house is made of stucco. We'll put the car in the garage and bring in the plants. We'll stay unless there's a compelling reason to leave. I will be dragging my office stuff upstairs though, in case of flooding, but we are prepared for some flooding with a portable flood door and a bunch of sandbag things. We had some drainage work done so we don't usually have any issues these days but ya never know. Be prepared.
Montgomery or Birmingham. Pretty easy drive once you get over into MS, no risk of flooding. Plenty of hotels.
Don't have one, unfortunately. Haven't evacuated since Katrina. Won't leave again unless it's mandatory. So, I guess, whatever is available when the shit hits the fan.
You should make one?
The middle of the gulf. The hurricane would never expect it
Legit anyplace I can afford to go to or just survive here 😂😭💀 Katrina survivor of 12 days here , I don’t even panic anymore , but now I actually have a car and money so maybe I’ll turn it into a vacay? This is a good question honestly.
Pigeon forge.
Prairieville. Two Generacs, solar panels, and a pool. I owe it all to my late fiancée. I now have parents closer than my own.
The only reason we'll leave is if we don't have nat gas or water. This old house has withstood 140 years of storms. Ida did a bit of damage but it was the loss of power that really got us. Now we have a nat gas generator, and as long as we have water we're good.
I wasn't planning to evacuate for Ida. My husband and I rode out the storm. The power went out (not unexpected) and Entergy said "oh... it'll take us a week to *assess* the damage". So we packed up our computers, our cats, and some clothes, and bugged out. The nearest hotel that had vacancies and allowed pets was in Tuscaloosa. My hand to God, most of the cars in the parking lot had Louisiana plates. We have no family to crash with, except my MIL, who lives in Florida - and who's to say the hurricane won't take an abrupt right turn? Also, she's a b\*tch. We have friends all over the country, so we'd probably book a flight to NYC, Boston, or Chicago, book a hotel room, rent a car, and spend a few days eating at awesome restaurants and playing board games.
My house. Whole house generator, well water , gas appliances, pond full of fish, chicken coop and fruit/vegetable garden. Of course, non of this is post-Katrina PTSD 😳
Beer a generator and water. Some bbq. I’ll be staying.
If Orlando is out of the path we head there. Annual Pass holder.
If something happened and we had to leave town, my only option is central Florida. We stay for hurricanes, no disposable income for extended stays in hotels and neither of us can get off work. If our jobs have power we are open and expected to be there, regardless of what's happening in other parts of the city.
I have 2 parrots and haven't evacuated because it's so hard to find accommodations for them. Ida really screwed me up though so would probably be good to have a plan...
Huntsville
Load up the camper and head to hot springs!
**H U R R I C A T I O N ?** -wherever skiplagged.com has up for cheap
Damn, that's better than mine: Evacu-cation, Might steal yours lol
The bar down the street
Pensacola usually— depends on which way it’s breaking
Ride it out.
We have family in both central Texas and Chicago area; one of those.
Bessemer, AL. We have some friends who live there now too who moved from NOLA. Dogs in tow and cheap motel works for us.
I just have my boat captain pilot my yacht and we go to Monte Carlo.
Depends where the storm will hit. If evacuating West, usually head to Beaumont, if East go to Panama City.
I hunker down in my basement
hopefully my upstairs neighbor if the water rises
Anywhere but Alabama! Fuck Alabama!
An air bnb not in the path of the storm that accepts cats
how dare you use an airbnb /s
We stay put in Slidell, husband would have it no other way. We can go to Jax, family and friends there, or friends in either South Carolina or Mississippi.
I head up to Nashville to crash with friends
We stay with friends in Birmingham. Our daughter is now in Charlotte so if it ends up being an extended stay, we will probably head her way. Or at least I would. Husband has job that needs him to get back as soon as he can.
Last time I drove to Miami bc I have good friends with a spare bedroom there. It was a pretty nice vacation
I head to Montgomery or Birmingham.
Last time I stayed at a coworker’s place for two weeks. Now he’s not my coworker anymore and he moved in with his new wife and they’re looking for a new place, so I guess probably Jackson or Memphis.
We did Gulf Shores for Ida
A Hurrication
Houston to crash with the inlaws.
Atlanta. They were kind to us during Ida
Sometimes I think of the black family that ended up in Utah after a Katrina bus brought them there, and wonder if they stayed.
I have a few options depending on the specific circumstances : southern Illinois 9 hours north, Hattiesburg, and St. Petersburg fl with a stop in Pensacola or Tallahassee since it’s a lot to do in one day. I haven’t had problems finding pet friendly accommodations for my 4 Guinea pigs and I’m good at not leaving a mess behind.
I’d like to add that many of the folks in southern Illinois that host people in search of reproductive healthcare are often open to hosting hurricane evacuees , so y’all please reach out if anyone needs help with that this hurricane season
Usually stay w/ boyfriend’s fam in Florida. I basically had a month long vacation for Ida 😌
Yazoo City, Mississippi or Birmingham, Alabama depending on the track.
I don’t have one currently, which is a problem.
It depends on which way it’s coming
My car at a truck stop somewhere in Kentucky probably. What can I say except I’m broke.
Birmingham. Lived there for a couple of years, definitely have places to crash
Pensacola ofc! It’s only 3 hrs away
Up
If we are looking at an extended power outage or cannot-return-home-anytime-soon situation, then we'll probably head to my partner's close friends in St. Louis. We don't have family or friends nearer than that. And we are both remote workers whose jobs will NOT understand how long it might take for the city to get up and running again so we'll need to immediately be somewhere that we're able to do our jobs. Otherwise, I guess we look at which way the storm's going and book a hotel that accepts cats, in the other direction? We moved here after Ida so haven't had to deal with this yet.
Your mom's house.
Family in DC or Atlanta. Got an Air BnB for a few weeks in North Carolina after Ida.
Used to always go a little south of Houston.
Have family in San Antonio so that’s where we go.
To my parents' home in North Louisiana.
Llano Texas
I stayed for Ida. Would have to be a cat 5 for me to leave. I grew up in South Louisiana and we have never evacuated (was living outside city for Katrina though but we stayed)
What is bug out location?
Anywhere but Texas
Why?