The hurricane dilemma

[Rich Z]

Well, Florida has become pretty famous with our last couple of hurricane seasons, and I think a lot of people living here have had a bit of a wakeup call about them as well. I was pretty blase about the idea myself. I moved down here in '91, and we have had a few close calls, but nothing damaging. Never had to face the prospect of actually having to evacuate the area. And I was thinking, "hell, it's just water and wind, what's the big deal?"

Well, a couple of years ago, I had a show I was doing in Daytona Beach, and just so happens that hurricane Charlie decided to cross completely through the state and hit Daytona Beach on Friday night when we were there. We were on the 12th floor of the Adams Mark (it's since changed hands). The wife and I were beat from setting up for the show, so we went back to the room and just crashed. We woke up to the sound of hurricane force winds blowing through the open glass door overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and feeling the building rocking. Long story short, is that this was JUST a cat 1 hurricane and it knocked the stuffings out of Daytona Beach. And I have since been to Punta Gorda and surrounding areas and saw the damage there.

So yeah, matter of time before Tallahassee gets the crosshairs on it.

Which brings up my dilemma. We have four vehicles. The Z06, a Z71 pickup, a Chevy Astro van, and a Jeep Wrangler. If we SHOULD have to evacuate, which ones SHOULD we drive out of here? Logic and emotion are at war here because I KNOW what I should do. The Z71 and the Jeep all have four wheel drive, so if the roads are a little bit "messy" to get back home, those would be the best bets. But if we are looking at a MAJOR hurricane, maybe the van would be the better bet because we could throw at least some of our more valuable belongings into it in case the worst happens. But man, it will break my heart to leave the vette behind. Our land is heavily wooded, so downed trees are a given. I think I would lose it to see a big old pine tree laying over the vette. But no matter what, I can't see the logic of choosing it as one of the escape vehicles.

I thought about moving it, but where? Where else would be any better? Out in the open with no trees as a danger leaves it wide open and exposed for debris driven by maybe 140+ mile per hour winds. Not to mentioned the spawning tornadoes that you can certainly expect.

Anyone else had these thoughts run through their head? I'm not really much of a worry wart, but I think some planning is in order regardless. Heck, I already know that if a major hurricane hits this area, I will probably lose my business completely anyway. I have an automatic generator to keep power running for about two weeks, but that won't do me any good if the buildings are just blown away or crushed by trees. No way I can evacuate all the animals, so I just have to cross my fingers on that one.

So this is going to be the first hurricane season that I have to worry about what to do with the vette in a hurricane. Oh, we have one of those detached metal car port things I am sure you have all seen. Open all around and basically just a roof overhead. That won't last 15 minutes in 100 mile per hour winds and would probably collapse on anything under it. It is NOT a strongly designed structure at all.

Anyway, just thinking out loud here. Hurricane season IS coming........