We Have Been Ordered to Evacuate.

We are a little further in, so we haven't been in an evacuation zone for any of 11 years we have lived here. My mother in Law has been through all sorts of this, she once had a survivor shirt that listed all the hurricanes she had 'outlasted' here.(She now lives in the high lands of Texas :) Hope you have found friends in some of your neighbors, it will make this time far easier. As for us, we have both friends and family here, so we are likely to be fine. (near WPB) Most suggest if you have to evacuate, go 10's of miles away, not 100's, but intuition about that sort of thing is often better than general advice.

I've been in the Mid-Atlantic region of the east coast since the late 80's. I lived right on the beach for over 11 years, and have never evacuated. I stayed in my beachfront condo during hurricane Bonnie. Once the power went out, and the building started rocking, I realized I should have evacuated. I made it out alive, sold my condo, and moved away from the beach, but stayed in the area. In 2003, Hurricane Isabelle came through, ripped my entire roof off, tore all of the siding off my house, and we didn't have power for over 2 weeks. Fun stuff! Got to know my neighbors really well.