Monday, April 09, 2007

'You wanna get off the island? Yeah, it'll take about a day'

If a hurricane is heading to North Carolina's Outer Banks, and you want to get off, you may, uh, want to leave yesterday.

"The time it takes to clear tourists off the Outer Banks in the face of a hurricane is getting longer and longer, according to a study by the state Department of Transportation," writes the Associated Press.

"Currently, it is estimated to take 21 hours to evacuate the barrier islands if traffic is headed on U.S. Highway 64 west to Columbia and 30 hour on U.S. 158 into Currituck County.

"By 2030, the study estimated the evacuation times - from the minute the first car leaves until the last one exits - would increase to 31 hours via Columbia in Tyrell County and 46 hours on U.S. 158. ...

"On a July 4 weekend, more than 200,000 visitors can be on the Outer Banks and traffic backs up without an evacuation order."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

and that's why the "no brainer" of getting a MidCurrituck Sound Bridge needs to be speeded up. If delays had not been made to this point, we wouldn't be worrying about how long it takes to evacuate along NC12 from Corolla through Southern Shores. Write your congress persons and let them know you want faster action before thousands are killed waiting in line to escape. It is only a matter of time.

M. Lail said...

Anonymous: Thanks for the input. I rarely get out to the OBX, so I'm not familiar with the details. It sounds REALLY bad.