Anyone that lives on the coast should already know all these things.
You can warn people and warn people. Most will ignore you. The rest are already prepared. It’s proven over and over.
Got a boat? get it out of the water if possible.
Got water? Get some before the shelves are empty. Might already be getting low. Same with TP. Gotta generator? No? Then do without electric. Need to cook without electric? Propane camp stove.
I lived in FL for 25 years and it was crazy. Plywood, water and TP will sell out two days before it makes landfall. I can sort of understand waiting because I’ve seen them take a 90 degree turn and seen them fizzle out and turn into a T-storm. Thing is, plywood, should already have it if you live on the coast. Either that or hurricane shutters. Water and TP are cheap so just keep it on hand. Also, it takes a huge storm, like Andrew/Katrina to do much damage further than 10-20 miles inland.
I have a sister there that asked me about generators last year when they had no electric for two weeks due to a hurricane. There were none available in the whole state anyway. Earlier this year I bought a new gennie and got it on sale, online with free shipping. Those yellow Champion brand gennies are affordable, reliable and run quiet so I emailed her about the deal. No longer interested. Whatever.
RE: evacuating; It’s not always their fault. Some people have no place to go or no fuel money to go anywhere. Some people can’t leave because they know all their stuff will be gone when they get back.
There was one where a family was packing up and leaving because the news and gov over hyped it big time. The dad ran over and killed his 3 year old son while moving truck/trailer around the yard. Storm fizzled but the news made some good $$ on the commercials and the stores sold off their entire stock of many items.
My niece boarded up all the windows on their mobile home. Don’t even have any trees in their yard and they live in Ctrl FL, 60-70 miles inland but the news hyped it up for ratings and the gov went overboard pretty much saying 2/3 of the state needed to evacuate.
On a side note, isn’t it about time to retire the name Florence?
“I lived in FL for 25 years and it was crazy. “
In the 60’s-70’s most homes in South FL were built with storm shutters installed. If a home didn’t have shutters people would buy plywood once and store it in their garage or sheds and keep it ready for the next time.
Not so much today.