Hurricane Idalia: Should You Stay Put Or Go? Answer Could Save A Life

FLORIDA — Should Florida residents evacuate in the more than 20 counties where orders have been issued as Hurricane Idalia approaches? It can be a life-or-death decision.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking residents to leave while they can, and hoping for a different result than a year ago. In September 2022, as Hurricane Ian's massive eye was focused on Tampa Bay, mandatory evacuation orders issued for 2.5 million people from Fort Myers to Pasco County. But the Category 4 storm made a last-minute turn and pummeled Southwest Florida on Sept. 28, 2022.

The storm was responsible for more than 150 direct and indirect deaths and more than $112 billion in damages, making it the costliest hurricane in Florida’s history.

DeSantis had urged residents to evacuate, because experts can't predict with 100 percent accuracy where a hurricane will make landfall. He might as well have been speaking to an empty room. Officials said many of the shelters along Florida's west coast were deserted.

"Telling people to leave their homes and belongings behind and head to higher ground is never an easy decision to make," said Pinellas County Commissioner Dave Eggers. "You try to find a balance between overreacting and underreacting. It is a really difficult decision."

Related:

• ‘Burned Out’ Floridians Are Staying Put For Tropical Storm Idalia
• Where To Evacuate With Pets In Tampa Bay Area During Hurricane Idalia

Pinellas County Commissioner Charlie Justice said he hopes this hurricane season will be different after residents witnessed the tragedy and destruction wrought by Hurricane Ian last year.

"Maybe it will spark that desire for folks to want to plan," he said. "We just encourage our residents to take every step necessary to make sure that they're ready because you do not want to place your family in harm's way when we're dealing with something like this."

Reluctance To Evacuate During Hurricane Ian

Just 12 hours before Hurricane Ian was due to make landfall in the U.S., the National Hurricane Center still couldn't say with any conviction where Ian's eye would strike Florida's west coast.

Up until then, all models showed the hurricane making a beeline for Tampa Bay. But, without warning, the hurricane shifted to the south, making landfall in Fort Myers.

Residents of Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Sanibel Island, Pine Island and surrounding areas were caught completely off guard.

The Hurricane Ian made landfall just shy of a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph. The storm showed no mercy, felling homes and businesses like pickup sticks, decimating the Sanibel Causeway and the Matlacha Bridge and claiming 150 lives.

Eggers said he watched the devastation in horror, imagining the toll the hurricane would have taken on Pinellas County if it had maintained its original course.

"My God, I think it woke us all up to see those storm surges," said Eggers. "We've dealt with a lot of winds before, but that storm surge was unfathomable."

If the hurricane with its 15 feet of storm surge had hit Pinellas County head on, Eggers said the chance of anyone who had failed to heed the county's mandatory evacuations surviving would have been bleak.

As Pinellas has done with the approach of Hurricane Idalia, the county called for mandatory evacuations of Zone A, mobile home residents and all of the county's 99 long-term care facilities.

As the storm loomed closer, Eggers and fellow commissioners added Zones B and C to the mandatory evacuation list and shut down the county's barrier islands as county employees hurriedly opened 25 general population hurricane shelters and three special-needs shelters at schools outside the evacuation zone to accommodate the 350,000 people under mandatory evacuation orders.

While some evacuees would predictably head inland to stay with family or friends or find more confortable lodgings at an inland hotel, workers rushed to gather food, water and other provisions in anticipation of accommodating thousands of residents.

The county opened 25 general population shelters and three special-needs shelters with full medical capabilities. It had food, water and other provisions on hand to accommodate the evacuees.

Working with Pinellas emergency management officials, the sheriff's office and the school district, "we brought the entire community together, every municipality, every nonprofit from homeless to housing services together, over 250 people," Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton said.

"There's only so much you can do to plan for something like that coming at you but we were as ready as we could be," Burton said. "We converted buses to transport special needs residents and, ultimately, we came together as a community. We had the shelters open and we had them staffed."

Instead of sheltering a large number of the county's 350,000 evacuees, Burton said 5,000 people showed up.

Did that mean that 345,000 people found shelter with family or friends or sought shelter in hotels?

"My guess is they stayed home and, if Hurricane Ian had made landfall in Tampa Bay, we were going to be doing a lot of rescues," said Burton.

"That's the number that scared me the most," said Justice. "We have 350,000 people living in the evacuation zones and only 5,000 of them showed up at the shelters. I still don't believe there were 345,000 people that found other places to shelter during those 24 to 48 hours."

Survey Asked Why Floridians Didn't Evacuate In 2022

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a survey in response to the 2020-21 Atlantic hurricane season during which no major hurricane struck Florida.

About 22 percent of those responding reported evacuating at least one time in response to a hurricane threat. About 60 percent said they stayed with family or friends. Another 43 percent said they went to a motel or hotel. And just 11 percent said they evacuated to a public shelter.

In the future, 32 percent of the respondents said they would heed the call to evacuate and 53 percent said it would depend on the severity of the hurricane.

However, an overwhelming 65 percent of residents under a mandatory or voluntary evacuation order said they simply didn't feel the need to evacuate.

The CDC respondents had the following concerns about going to a disaster shelter:

• Lack of faith in the media/news (58 percent)
• Concern about leaving valuables and property (42 percent)
• Lack of certainty in weather predictions (38 percent)
• Inconvenient to get to a disaster shelter (31 percent)
• Too expensive to evacuate (28 percent)

These same respondents said they'd be more likely to evacuate if hotels were used as shelters (31 percent); medical care was available at shelters (30 percent) and pets could be kept at or near the disaster shelter (27 percent).

Evacuation officials conceded that sheltering at the local high school isn't an ideal situation. It lacks the comfort of home, there are too many people, the meals are nothing to brag about and the wait to use the bathrooms are too long.

Tolls Suspended Ahead Of Hurricane Idalia

For those who do plan to evacuate, DeSantis said he's suspended fees on toll roads along the west coast so Floridians and visitors will be able to quickly and safely evacuate.

“Anyone who receives an evacuation order needs to make plans to go to a safe area now," DeSantis said. "You do not need to leave the state— travel tens of miles, not hundreds of miles. By waiving tolls, we are easing the burden on families in the path of this storm.”

“As Floridians along the west coast of Florida finalize their evacuation plans for Hurricane Idalia, we want to ensure there is no barrier to getting their families to a safe location,” said Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared W. Perdue. “The department is committed to ensuring travelers can get where they need to go as safely and efficiently as possible. Suspending tolls in the greater Tampa Bay region ensures families can head south and east with ease to get out of the storm’s direct path.”

The Florida Department of Transportation and Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise suspended tolls as of Tuesday morning for the next seven days. Tolls will be reinstated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, at noon.

Tolls are suspected on:

• Interstate 4 connector
• Selmon Expressway (State Road 618)
• Veterans Expressway (State Road 589)
• Suncoast Parkway (State Road 589)
• Suncoast Parkway (State Road 589)
• Turnpike Mainline (I-75 to I-4)
• Pinellas Bayway (State Road. 679)
• Sunshine Skyway Bridge (U.S. 19)

Florida’s 511 Traveler Information System is available for drivers to stay informed about roadway conditions during emergencies. This service is monitored and updated 24/7 by FDOT and includes traffic conditions, road and bridge closures and other specialized alerts.

To use Florida’s 511, visit the website at FL511.com or download the app on both Apple and Android devices.

What's your opinion on evacuations? Let us know in the comment section below.