THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9603300007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Any one who has sat in snarled traffic on westbound I-64 on a bright Sunday afternoon in mid-summer would have to laugh - or cry - when they consider plans to evacuate 240,000 people from South Hampton Roads in the event of a major hurricane.
A hurricane-evacuation plan was released by the Hampton Road Planning District Commission last week. It recommends that the eastbound lanes of I-64 between the Hampton Coliseum and Williamsburg be transformed into westbound lanes to help move traffic.
Fine. But how do motorists get as far as Hampton? The present highways are barely adequte to move the volume of weekend tourist traffic in summer - let alone the thousands of residents who presumably would be heading for the hills with a major hurricane bearing down on them.
There is a deadly potential here for fleeing families to find themselves weathering a major storm in their automobiles. This could be a far scarier scenario than residents riding out a Category IV hurricane in a house without a roof.
A coherent plan to safely evacuate families from Hampton Roads in the event of a major hurricane of the magnitude of Hugo or Andrew is needed, but common sense says that any scheme that puts hundreds of thousands of people on the roads, while winds in excess of 130 mph rake the area, is seriously flawed.
What the area really needs are large, safe, well-marked, well-known public shelters - out of the flood plain and on this side of the tunnels and bridges - where locals can safely seek refuge from a catastrophic hurricane.
Emergency evacuation is an imprecise science. But to those who travel the roads of Hampton Roads on a daily basis, the notion of driving away to safety with a hurricane on the horizon is highly suspect. by CNB