Floyd

["Jeff and Anita Carlson" <ranger2@gate.net>]

We live in S. Georgia, 16 feet above sea level and with marsh on 3 sides. 
The forcast was predicting Floyd would pretty much be a direct hit and
there was a manditory evacuation in our whole county and several others
near here.

All I could think of was the devistation left after Andrew and Hugo.
houses and trees smashed like sticks, power lines down, roads
unrecignizable, piles of trash everywhere, looting etc.  Very scary.
lots of my friends stayed during both those hurricanes and it scared me
thinking about what could happen.

My husband refused to leave, his father has terminal cancer and is in Jax,,
FL and cannot be moved, so he wanted to be close to him.  and he wanted to
protect our property, although there is not much a person can do in 150 mph
winds.

I loaded up the horses and 2 rottweilers and left for N. Georgia about 9 am
tues.  got stuck in traffic and took about 10 1/2 hrs for a drive that
normally would take 7 1/2 hrs.  Not bad considering it took some folks  
who left later over twice that amt. of time.
friends who live here left about 3pm that day and took them 6 hrs to get 70
miles away.  traffic was at a standstill in some places.  I 16 (major
interstate) was closed to east bound traffic, they had both sides open for
west bound traffic only and were not letting anyone off the exit ramps. 
there were cars stranded on the side of the road in a lot of places.  lots
of people caravaning together, w/ boxes and stuff thrown in their cars and
animals everywhere.  about every other vehicle had a dog or cat carrier or
bird cage or some type of pet.  
I heard there were huge lines at gas stations, some cars that ran out of
gas had to be filled by tanker trucks along the highway...

Most people on the roads were very considerate- not your usual rush hr/ cut
throat traffic.  maybe because we were going so slow and everyone was in it
together.  I was glad to see all the animals people had with them.  I know
after Andrew there were thousands of horses, dogs cats and others lost.  

On the news they said this was the largest evacuation on the east coast
ever.  We were so lucky to not have any damage in our area, although we
very well could have.  
thanks everyone for your concern-
Anita Carlson



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