Traffic

[BeachSiO2]

My experience with Ivan and Dennis was that the majority of tourists leave or cancel when a hurricane or tropical storm is reported. I'm usually one of the last to leave just to avoid the 98/331 cluster.

Someone told me that the "official" evacuation plan solely consists of them recognizing that it is impossible to evacuate the area because of the increased population.

I understand and would cancel too. I actually have stayed and haven't evacuated since 2000 but they may change because I no longer have the steel-reinforced, concrete block home I used too.;-)

I hope someone will chime in with an official description of how the evacuation works too. For what its worth, here is the County's Hurricane Information webpage: http://www.co.walton.fl.us/default.asp?ID=63

 

[yippie]

I have to disagree on this one as the TDC was the agency that sent out emails and faxes to bed tax collectors, chamber of commerce members, etc before there was a Citizen Services Department. This was from I think 1999 or 2000 through 2003. In 2004, Citizen Sevices took it over. I know the Citizen Services Director reads this website which is why I put in the plug for sowal;-) .

If you post other locations or other means, I am sure he will add those to his list. People are acting so tell them where to act, I for one think sowal is a good one.

Like I said earlier, I believe that since sowal was a ghost town the last 24 hours before Dennis hit then something is working let's all help to make it better!

Sorry, I should have clarified what area I was in. Okaloosa County, City of Destin. They did not ask tourist to leave early. Only on the morning Dennis was going to come ashore was there breathing room.

 

[BeachSiO2]

Sorry, I should have clarified what area I was in. Okaloosa County, City of Destin. They did not ask tourist to leave early. Only on the morning Dennis was going to come ashore was there breathing room.

No problem, thanks for the clarification!!

 

[North Lake]

Many thanks to BeachSiO2 for the plug, and yes, SoWal is now on the distribution list for county evacuation orders, press releases, and the like. We'll be judicious about it so's not to bore anyone with things that don't pertain to SoWal; but our goal is to communicate what the county is doing. "News you can use" is the aim here.

I'd appreciate any input for other media that you think useful in meeting this goal. We send our releases out to most of the mainstream media -- tv and radio stations, and the print media. I'm open to anything that works, and I learn something new about my job just about every day.

Gwen Break at The Walton Sun has been good about putting our stuff out on the EmeraldCoast.com portal if it won't wait until Saturday morning. The same goes for Mark and Renee over at SeaBreeze 106 and Art Dees at WZEP. They've been there when we've needed them. There's nothing like the electronic media for immediacy. However, in a market with so many choices and listening habits it is really hard to know what everybody listens to. Tell me what you listen to and we'll add them to the list if they're not already on it. E-mail me at litken@co.walton.fl.us.

With regard to the evacuation procedure, it's pretty simple. There's one way out. Early is better if you have a choice, and you might have more choices of routes out, too.

Having said that, every storm is different. Those who were around for Opal in 1995 may recall that she danced off the coast for days before coming in as a direct hit. Ivan and Dennis were fairly straightforward, but moved quickly. As has already been observed here, Dennis went fairly well evacuation-wise. We were really dreading Katrina when she was headed straight for us as a Cat 5 before veering off to New Orleans.

Public safety is the key objective, and those in the EOC who issue evacuation orders take that responsibility very seriously. If we issue the order prematurely and the storm goes away, we lose credibility for the next storm that comes along -- if we wait until it's a certainty (which no hurricane is), it's too late and people endure long lines of traffic as a minimum. Thank goodness we've not lost anyone to a storm.

 

[cpete]

Yes, when we left on last Saturday it took us a good hour and a half to get to I-10. My questions is that I saw what appeared to be a new road being constructed in Freeport at the light. Is that road going to go through to I-10 and if so will it be a pass over or another light?

 

[GoodWitch58]

North Lake, actually there could be alternative ways out given a little management of the traffic situation and some coordination. I can think of several ways that people on different sections of 30A could go in addition to 331, especially if there was a staggered evacuation....and last Sunday there could have been traffic management and re-routing onto Highway 20 up to Crestview; Highway 20 over to Highway 81....there are options if you guys would just think about it in a more expansive way and educate the tourists.

 

[beachmouse]

The problem with rerouting through Crestview is that it would also get pretty slammed pretty quickly. Granted you're talking a good chunk of four lane road, but the population there is a lot larger than the Freeport-DFS corridor.

 

[GoodWitch58]

I agree. My point is that North Lake's comment about there only being one way out is not exactly correct. We seem to have a lot more north/south tourist traffic than the Niceville/Crestview area does.--if some of it was re-routed East and West on the businest holidays it would be an improvement, because as you point out 85 is a 4-lane, as is 79 out of PCB at least for a portion of the route.

My overall point is that Walton county officials could manage traffic better if they gave it some thought and coordinated as is done in many other places in the world. It seems like common sense to me if we are going to market for tourists then the TDC ought to talk with the law enforcement and the EOC folks to come up with a better plan...and having message signs warning about congestion and deputies directing traffic at intersections seems pretty
basic on the businest holiday of the year!

 

[florida girl]

I understand that traffic backs up all the way to the Alabama line around 5am Monday through Friday with people trying to get to work in SoWal. Then the daily exodus in the afternoon. Don't complain unless you are willing to do something about it. The county spends money on all sorts of nonsense compared to what's really needed, ie "parks and recreation". I try to stay off the highway as much as possible, but some serious discussion needs to be made! It seems much of the residents of SoWal have no idea of life just across the bay, and where the money really needs to be spent.

 

[scooterbug44]

I couldn't believe the traffic saturday morning on my way home from a quick trip. Northbound traffic was at a standstill from Freeport/20 all the way down 331 and 15-25 cars in either direction on 98!