If you have ever driven or lived in Boston you know that signage is not one of the city's strong points. In fact, it is almost impossible for an outsider to comprehend how bad the sign situation it is. Often you can only tell what street you are not on, because many main streets don't have street signs, although the cross streets do. And a street is likely to change it crosses over one of the invisible boundaries that mark the divisions between the state's 351 cities and towns. Each city and town borders others. There is no unincorporated land in Massachusetts, every square inch being in one of the cities or towns and each city or town is responsible for its own signage and street names. In Boston and surrounding cities the streets are narrow and twist and wind in different directions, presumably following old cow paths or some other long forgotten constraint. The signs at Logan International airport are a joke of the sick variety. Driving to and from the airport is an adventure.
So what if you needed to get out of town in a hurry? Simple. Just follow the Evacuation Route signs. That's what a reporter and videographer did for a new free metro paper, BostonNow, and they posted their adventure on the paper's website. They wound up in the very nearby town of Milton, presumably safe.
Some of the answers from local officials seemed to conflict. At least two law enforcement officers had differing impressions of the need and probability of roadside assistance during a real emergency. Doctors questioned whether or not the destinations chosen would be far enough removed from the epicenter of certain kinds of emergencies.Though blue arrows clearly marked the route from Downtown Crossing through Roxbury to Hyde Park, the lifeline petered out a mile from the Milton line. The final sign on Hyde Park Avenue led to an unmarked fork in the road. (BostonNow)
This isn't the most dramatic or stylish video you will ever see. It certanly lacks suspense. Anyone who has driven in Boston knows how this will come out. You follow signs as far as you can until you run out of what to do next. It doesn't matter if it is a Detour or an Evacuation Route, it always ends the same way. Lack of further signs.
Welcome to Milton. Wherever that is:
Their postscript reveals they were pulled over as possible terror suspects. Apparently you can't take videos of an Evacuation Route. I guess that's why they keep it secret.
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revere,
That's hilarious! Except, of course, in an emergency.
As a foreigner who is brave enough (or stupid enough) to have driven in Boston a few times, I can tell you that it is MORE than signs running out. I use a GPS navigation system, which works fine and you cruise along thinking, what do I care about signs, EXCEPT all routes seem to lead you to some tunnel or other, and all of a sudden you have absolutely no idea where you are headed.
And, I swear they switch the routes into the tunnels around every few months, or, did they actually physically switch the tunnels? I can never figure out.
So BF arrives and everyone sick or not arrives in Milton........then what? Same applies for Tampa, Miami, Orlando. The evac routes take you out into the boonies but you dont know you are "there" and "where" you are supposed to be for hurricanes or a disaster. Its a Clinton definition... It all depends on what is, is.
Dont feel like the Lone Ranger and it goes without saying that the same above applies to Wilmington, Charleston, Philly, and the big potato New York. If they had to evacuate that city it would take a week to ten days.
Fuel in particular from the traffic jams is a problem and has led to the recommendation that the evacs be done only by section of the cities so that the outlying areas have a chance to absorb them more slowly. Each area is supposed to process out further and further as the emergency shelters open up.... Well, thats the thought anyway.
Traffic jams are dangerous especially in front of a hurricane bearing down. Hugo almost caught thousands out on the freeway because of the traffic jams. And the biggest reason this refugee problem becomes one is that the states have no idea how far to process them out and away. What is safe? Well they consider Milton to be safe for Mass and Boston obviously. For hurricanes its probably the next state over. Me and hurricanes having been thru three majors and two minors? I like Nevada.
Every casino in Mississippi loaded up from Katrina and the hotel rooms were covered by the Federal Government as part of temporary housing from Katrina. Yup, as late as January there were still Katrina refugees living there and picking up the tab on the 24 hour buffet for them. So is it the Feds problem and are we setting ourselves up for a major kill because of the above? Probably, but it wont be anyones particular fault. Just not a way to physically and logistically do it. How far can you go on a quarter tank of gas in traffic, idling as you go for miles on end.
The threat of an East Coast tsunami is now being realistically discussed for everything from a sub-sea quake near Puerto Rico or a massive block ice slip into the ocean in Greenland, to our favorite which is a volcano out in the Azores and a huge island sized landslide. 5 hours to evacuate the East Coast, 2 if its Florida and Puerto Rico. Uh, huh.
Blue road signs.... I feel all better now.
I think the main complaint about those signs is that is the route everybody would take so I think of ways to evacuate where those signs are not pointing the way. If something happens I wouldn't want to be sitting in my car stuck in traffic.
In my mind it would boil down to an individual plan as far as knowing when to and when not to leave. Life is a risk and we're vulnerable.
Just don't land in Las Vegas MRK, saw on the weather channel show "it could happen tomorrow", that they're due for an 8.0 earthquake. Couple that with the fact that the Vegas basin is sinking, loose sand and all. Looked for the program on the net but couldn't find it, sorry.
revere, I tried to play the video and it wouldn't work.
Lea: That's strange. Works on my machine. Anyone else having trouble? It think it has an embedded player so it should work.
Works fine for me, Mozilla on Win XP Pro.
Lea, if using Netscape or IE6-7 and windows XP check your Program Access and Defaults off your start menu. Go to Custom settings and highlight and click on the gray bar. Check and see if you have Windows Media Player check or Quick Time. Enable access to all that are there regardless of your selected player. If that doesnt work, email me.
Thank you MRK, it worked.
What application produces/plays .flv files? Neither Mac OSX nor Firefox 2.0 recognize the format. I have Quicktime, Windows Media Player and Real Player installed, but nothing seems to recognize this format.
Gee, MRK, you are usually so thorough. I am surprised you did not mention the debacle in Houston ahead of Rita. Perhaps I should not make light, what the death of the nursing home residents, but it was very educational. Even afterwards friends of mine could not return because there was no gasoline to be had in the city.
chezjake: You should be able to play this. It has an embedded player. I used Safari on a Mac with no problem. It also plays with no problem in Firefox. .flv is the Flash Video format. You might have to have Adobe Flash Player plug-in. Google Adobe Flash Player and get the plug-in which is used by YouTube, MySpace, etc., sites so it is good to have it anyway. Hope that works.
The only time I've not gotten lost in Boston was a couple months ago. Unfortunately, I'd have to be willing to tolerate the adverse drug reaction that gave me severe vertigo to repeat this performance. Not to be relied upon in an emergency.
Brook
Sorry Ray, I actually flew into Houston ahead of that to help get planes off the ground in Hobby ahead of it. You are of course right but the exodus was underway there too and they got lucky for sure. Hence as I always say to have gas in approved containers (55 gallon drums or Jerry cans) stored in an approved facility. Me I just put it out in my pasture and avoid it with mower and use round up to keep the weeds down. Most though dont have this luxury. Best I can offer up in that respect is to have a prepositioned fuel supply somewhere outside of town.
Here is a link you can use as well, its the forecasting models program. Mostly accurate down to say 100 miles plus or minus two days out. You recall the nor'easter of last week? It forecasted it by 8 days out.
http://moe.met.fsu.edu/tcgengifs/
Hence as I always say to have gas in approved containers (55 gallon drums or Jerry cans) stored in an approved facility.
And stabilized.
Modern gasoline turns to varnish and gel awfully fast. Diesel has stuff start growing in it.
There are additives which should go in all fuel which will be stored for longer than a month or two. Nothing worse than desperately needing something which will no longer make a motor run.
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