I lived less than two miles from the ocean, and is within the borders of the “mandatory evacuation” area. I have left three times. It’s not “forced” as they really can’t force you to leave, but it’s highly suggested and they will tell you that if something happens to you they will not be able to help you. I have taken the guns and supplies I thought I might need, caulked the safe shut (it’s bolted to the slab) in the vain hope that if the house blows away the safe and the caulk with keep the contents dry at least, and run out.
You have to make decisions about what’s more important, your guns or your safety. Ironically it’s the people with the least to lose that always want to stay and fight the storm. You see them on the news after the storm. Three teeth, a mobile home torn to hell, and a '87 Yugo in the driveway with a tree on top of it. Yeah, that’s what I’m going to stick around for.
I prefer to just have good insurance. Other than me, my family, and my dog there is nothing in my house that can’t be replaced, and with the proper insurance from a good carrier it will be. If it looks like the storm is the REALLY big one, you’ll find me at the front of the line at the airport with my American Express card and the clothes on my back. Ya’ll can have the guns and ammo. Oh, and the Yugo too.
I’m much further inland now, and the chance of a mandatory evacuation this far inland is much less likely. After Wilma, however, we did see roving vans going around and rooting through the trash piles on the street. The junkers were actually getting in fights in the streets over this crap. To my mind it’s not much more of a stretch to think that they’ll start moving inside. If we choose to, or need to, stay after a storm I want to know that I can protect my family when some scumbag comes walking in the house downstairs at 3 AM thinking we’re all upstairs sleeping only to find us crashed out in the living room because heat rises.
I’ve also seen the kind of panic that sets in when the dirtbag demographic doesn’t get their free shit from the .gov on time after a disaster. The park across the street from my old house was a water distribution center after the storms and there was a tension in the air that I’ve seen turn into riots before in other situations.
Let the housing market slip a bit more, let people bitch their way out of paying the higher property taxes on the more expensive houses they “upgraded” to, let gas get up to $6/gallon, and THEN let’s have a hurricane Andrew run right across the state from Ft. Lauderdale to Naples instead of Homestead in the middle of nowhere. Or better yet, let a Cat 5 run it’s way up the east coast of Florida from Miami to Palm Beach. Yeah, it’s all “what if” and a bit “chicken little”, but it doesn’t hurt anyone for me to have a rifle with two mags strapped to it and an ammo can full of backups.
If nothing else, I’m always ready for a range day and it makes packing for a class that much easier!
