Evacuation problems include highways, theft

Among them, Mark and Donna Welke of Orland Hills, Illinois, looked for a rental car on Wednesday after learning that their evening flight between Charleston and Chicago had been canceled.

The couple – he is 62, she is 58 years old and both are employed independently – have stayed for three days in Charleston's historic district. They said they foresaw the possibility of Hurricane Florence approaching the coast the following weekend.

But they did not realize how much a hurricane created travel problems in the future.

"He likes to be in control," Donna said when her husband stalled over the phone with a car rental company – an apparent hint to the customer's "control freak" character in the National Car Rental TV ads.

"We thought we had control," said Mark. "We thought we had a flight."

But, he adds, "if I get in this car, guess what? I fly. I know I will get there.

Just not soon. The trip takes about 15 hours, he said.

He assumed the gas would be available in the north. But who really knew? With hurricane trends and the large number of people on the run, Associate Administrator Jeff Byard called the last good day a "disappointment."

Jesse Prince is preparing to evacuate his home in North Myrtle Beach, Florida in anticipation of Hurricane Florence on September 12, 2018. (Photo: Josh Morgan, USA TODAY NETWORK)

Jill Forsythe, interviewed in Little River, South Carolina, said the new trajectory projected south of the storm was a surprise: "We did not think it would be good news." Brenda Methune, Mayor of Myrtle Beach , a punch.

The trick was to get out of the carpet and start running. But gas shortages have spread in North Carolina and South Carolina. While most of the stations were fueled, some were exhausted – including one in ten in the Raleigh-Durham area – and long lines were formed on others. Meanwhile, hotel rooms in the west coast of South Carolina were filled for evacuees.

Decide where to flee and where could be the most difficult part. Austin Parker from the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina, debated with himself. "Are you going west, south, north or are you staying? I do not know, with the storm. "

Jesse Prince and Karly Suggs, both 22, said the change in course of the storm was what convinced them to leave their couple in Little River, South Carolina. "That's what pushed us back," Suggs said as the pair rushed to load his big pickup truck and SUV.

They thought about going south, but a family member said that Tuesday's traffic on I-95 had already been exceptional.

The crowd was swelled by evacuees like Dane Evans, a 36-year-old fisherman, who was leaving his hometown of Swan Quarter to stay with his girlfriend in Washington, North Carolina.

Jill Forsythe, 56, and her husband Steve, 64, were eager to flee the coast of South Carolina and return home to Akron, Ohio. But they first had to secure their 46-foot sailboat in a marina near Little River. "We are attaching it and hope that everything will be fine," said Jill.

The couple removed the canvas, attached double lines around the large piles and secured the sails. When she did, she said, "We're going west to get out of the flood zone, and then we'll go north."

For the Forsythians, the problem was a boat; for others, it is pets, who are not allowed in the evacuation shelters of the Red Cross. Officials urged owners who needed shelter to board their pets with veterinarians, kennels or other facilities in "non-vulnerable areas" – tips that fit Easier perfectly. Said than Done.

Track: Follow the direction of Hurricane Florence

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The officials did what they could to facilitate the escape. All Interstate 26 lanes from Charleston were headed west to allow more than 135,000 residents of the city to head inland. And buses in the area took people to shelters.

A burden that refugees took with them was worrying. What would they return to?

Henry Wright, who lived in Charleston at 60, has been involved in many storms, including Hurricane Hugo in 1989. On Wednesday, Wright lined up for an evacuation bus north of Charleston. shelters.

Why was he running away from this hurricane? "I do not have a house," he explained.

His stay in the hurricane shelter, whatever its duration, will give him temporary accommodation. But the problem will be waiting in Charleston.

"I hope they find us something when we get back," he said. He got on the bus with other evacuees, without even knowing where he was spending the night.

Contributor: Tim Smith and Daniel J. Gross from Greenville News; Nikie Mayo from Independent mail Matt Bukrhartt from Asheville Times; The Associated Press.

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