I guess the only time it makes sense is if you can't or won't evacuate for some reason, but you live in a nearby house. Taking shelter in that building could have saved your life.

It's common knowledge here that if you're under a mandatory evacuation order, and decide to stay, you're on your own. If you need help, it's not coming. People still regularly roll the dice though.

Right. But if you do stay, it's still better to be high and dry than dead. Assuming you don't die from dysentery or heat exhaustion or something after the storm.

Does a building like that just open their doors and let people come on in? I would think the people working in those buildings would have evacuated the state and left it locked up/boarded up/whatever. I guess in a dire enough circumstance people just break in and try to get to a top floor. Just not sure what that situation looks like.

We're friends with a couple who moved to Florida and just bought a house in Punta Gorda last month. Doesn't look like a very good location according to that storm surge map.

Was about to board the plane when I posted this. Now the flight has been delayed 9 hours thanks to Frontier’s nonsense. I might be riding this thing out at MCO. LMAO

Yes, if you made the decision to stay in a flood zone, I would say that building would be preferred over a single story building. That said, storm surge can take out pretty much any structure.

Helene flipped my gazebo , just finished repairing it. I put 18in anchors in the ground for my gazebo ,grill and smoker with tie straps . Time will tell ,this one looks nasty!

I have friends in the Cape Coral area. They are staying put. I hope all is ok for them, but damn, if not, its their own fault. GTFO early, or move.

Five tables of poker still open at the Tampa Hard Rock

Yeah I'd be breaking in if my life was in danger.

I'm not in a tsunami zone in LA (I'm about 100' above sea level). But I have eyed a tall building on a hill above me just in case the water is coming up fast. But then again that kind of tsunami would probably be a civilization-destroying asteroid.

I'd say 95% of people that don't evacuate is a financial reason.

In the past maybe. Today it is the idiots that think anyone not MAGA is out to get them at all costs.

BEP pretty much proved this by saying she thought they were exaggerating the potential danger of this storm.

That, and people hate going to shelters.

Well I won't dispute that we as a society have truly gotten dumber, people literally ignore facts because of beliefs, don't research anything etc etc.