JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Karen Lane remembers the damage St. Augustine endured during Hurricane Matthew.
On Tuesday, she told Action News Jax, “I came home a month later. There was still devastation everywhere … So many friends and family and neighbors with their houses flooded.”
Lane stuck around for Hurricane Irma.
She said one of the reasons she didn’t leave was the evacuation traffic.
Action News Jax’s Beth Rousseau timed Lane’s evacuation route.
With clear skies and no congestion, the trip to the Duval County line took 25 minutes and 7 seconds.
During an evacuation for a category 5 storm, the time could climb to 26 hours, according to Florida’s Regional Evacuation Study Program.
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The goal is to have all families out of a given county in 16 hours for safety.
Trescott Planning and Solutions recently looked at the number while working on a project for St. Johns County.
President Dan Trescott said it will likely take even longer since the predictions were made in 2014.
He explained, “It looks like the county is getting higher and higher out of county evacuation times, making it more and more unsafe to evacuate in a timely manner.”
These are the ‘Out of County Clearance’ times predicted by Florida’s Regional Evacuation if a Cat. 5 hurricane hits Northeast Florida:
- St.Johns County: 26.5 hours
- Putnam County: 27.5 hours
- Clay County: 31.5 hours
- Duval County: 33 hours
- Nassau County: 38.5 hours
Lane said she's keeping a close eye on Dorian.
“Because of everything St. Augustine went through in, what, less than 11 months – two major hurricanes. I don’t think anyone is very eager for another one,” she said.
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