CT to Disney while avoiding Florence

tbaptista

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 9, 2012
OK, so we are driving to Disney this Friday! Plan is to leave southwest CT at 4am and arrive in Brunswick GA around 9pm. Due to Florence we are planning to take I-81 to I-77 then pickup route 321 in Columbia SC and take that to I-95 outside of Savannah GA. Based on Florence's current projected path I am thinking this should keep us on the outskirts of the storm and a safe distance away. Please let me know what you think as this is the first time I have tried to avoid a hurricane!
 
I wouldn't take a path back to the coast to Brunswick. They're currently under a mandatory evacuation for low lying areas, and are encouraging all to evacuate the county.

I think to 321 and getting on 321 is good, but then heading to the coast...not so much. I don't have a lot of time to try and plot a different route, but maybe Route 301?
 
They have changed the path of the storm and I personally wouldn't be anywhere close to Columbia or savannah Ga on Friday or Saturday. Truly, it's not going to be pretty. They are calling for this storm to come close to Wilmington, then turn south and hit near Myrtle Beach and then take all that rain and wind inland. I just don't see how you can get away from it on those days. I95 flooded in South Carolina during a much smaller storm last year. Be careful and stay safe.
 
OK, so we are driving to Disney this Friday! Plan is to leave southwest CT at 4am and arrive in Brunswick GA around 9pm. Due to Florence we are planning to take I-81 to I-77 then pickup route 321 in Columbia SC and take that to I-95 outside of Savannah GA. Based on Florence's current projected path I am thinking this should keep us on the outskirts of the storm and a safe distance away. Please let me know what you think as this is the first time I have tried to avoid a hurricane!
If at all possible, I think I'd postpone your trip for a few days. There are going to be nasty winds, possible tornadoes and heavy rains well ahead of the storm actually making landfall (which is supposed to be friday night/saturday morning) and a whole storm front pushing through ANY route into Florida from your area.

EDIT: or leave earlier...today if possible
I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the path of this storm on Friday or Saturday.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at1.shtml?cone#contents
 
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If at all possible, I think I'd postpone your trip for a few days. There are going to be nasty winds and rain ahead of the storm actually making landfall (friday night/saturday morning) and a whole storm front pushing through ANY route into the area.
Thanks, the goal is to be in southern GA by Friday night and Orlando by late Saturday morning.
 
Thanks for the responses. I think we will avoid the coast and take 321 to 301 and stay in Jessup GA Friday night then continue on 301 into Jacksonville FL on Saturday morning. Of course this is based on the hurricane's current path. My DW and I are checking NOAA every hour to watch for changes. We will be doing the same during the drive and adjust our route accordingly. If things really fall out of our favor we will just have to start vacation early and leave Thursday morning and be in southern GA Thursday night and out of GA early Friday morning.
 
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OK, so we are driving to Disney this Friday! Plan is to leave southwest CT at 4am and arrive in Brunswick GA around 9pm. Due to Florence we are planning to take I-81 to I-77 then pickup route 321 in Columbia SC and take that to I-95 outside of Savannah GA. Based on Florence's current projected path I am thinking this should keep us on the outskirts of the storm and a safe distance away. Please let me know what you think as this is the first time I have tried to avoid a hurricane!
Your route will NOT avoid the storm...at all. The 11 AM maps are on page 2 of the Tracking Hurricane Florence thread on this forum.

You may be able to avoid most of it if you stay on I-81 to Knoxville and then take i-75 through Georgia and the Florida Turnpike to WDW. You will still have a lot of rain, but the mountains should protect you from most of the wind.

You should also be prepared to drive straight through if necessary. 1.5 million people are being evacuated from coastal NC and SC, they have to go somewhere...and they are ahead of you. In addition, the storm's path has changed, so many of those folks will have to evacuate again, further to the south and SW. So you may well not be able to find any vacancies at hotels.
 
Thank you all! This is very helpful. Right now based on the Friday forecast for Columbia & Savannah and the Friday/Saturday forecast for Brunswick, GA we are going to leave Friday. I'll update this post from the road as we head down. Should be an adventure!
 
Good luck finding gas stations that have gas. Use Gas Buddy they currently are listing all the gas stations that are out of gas. Friend of ours was in Savannaha and reported long lines and lots of stations had no gas. The stores had no supplies either so take supplies with you in case you get stuck. Remember as the storm comes in land there is a high risk of lost cell towers so don't rely on your phone to get you some where take a paper map and you wont be able to call for help should you need to.

https://tracker.gasbuddy.com/?q=myrtle beach, sc

*** beware some highways have been convert to traffic flowing in the same direction in all lanes.
** they are now reporting that the rain fall could be as high as 40 inches!
** they just said the hurricane is 400 miles wide. Going around the storm is going to take you a lot further than you think to avoid it since it is suppose to stall once it comes inland.
 
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Thank you all! This is very helpful. Right now based on the Friday forecast for Columbia & Savannah and the Friday/Saturday forecast for Brunswick, GA we are going to leave Friday. I'll update this post from the road as we head down. Should be an adventure!
Keep us posted. Hopefully the adventure won't be like Splash Mountain! Good luck!
 
I was going to suggest the I81 to Knoxville to I75 route-there is no way I'd consider anything further east of that. There are already major flooding issues in Western VA and Western NC before this storms-this is around the I77 corridor. I'm not sure I'd even consider I75 or that far east with the newer storm tracks.

News reports are many are fleeing to Atlanta. Some military aircraft are actually evacuating to the Lexington, KY area. Haven't seen that in my 15 years here.
 
I have evacuated for hurricanes and I think that you really need to think about the traffic and the lack of gas that you will encounter along that route. Millions have had to evacuate and they have to go somewhere. There is no way that I would be taking on that "adventure."
 
Just so you know, I-26 is currently closed to southbound traffic from Columbia, SC to Charleston because it's being used as an evacuation route.

Also, below is the NHC wind projection, set to the "Most likely" time of arrival of tropical storm force winds (> 39 MPH). If you look closely at the map, you'll see that they are predicting more than a 50% likelihood of TS conditions almost the entire way between Charlotte and Brunswick during the hours you would be driving.

The I-81 to I-75 route from CT to Atlanta is about the same drive time as your projected route to Atlanta (15 hours)...and would be a lot safer. Atlanta to WDW is a little over 6 hours.

152637_most_likely_toa_34.png
 
What happens when you need to get home, after the hurricane has passed and damage has been done?

I really don't think this is a smart decision, but ultimately it's your call. I personally would not risk my safety for Disney World.

I would just urge caution here. This has been billed as a catastrophic, generational storm.
 
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Book a flight instead.

Your plan is a bad one. A really bad one.

I drove through TS force winds for 2 hours during Sandy and it was the scariest drive of my life. I was racing to get home in Northern VA before the storm hit, so it was just skirting the coast while it traveled north. There were downed trees all over I-95, semi trucks being blown off the road, debris flying, etc.

Fly or postpone your trip. Otherwise you are endangering your whole family for nothing.
 
Here is the weather for Savannah on Friday... Now I realize that the storm is unpredictable and can change but as of right now Friday is going to be fine in the areas we will be in. Of course we will be monitoring the storm extremely closely over the next 24 hours as well as during the drive.

upload_2018-9-12_15-58-6.png
 
Here is the weather for Savannah on Friday... Now I realize that the storm is unpredictable and can change but as of right now Friday is going to be fine in the areas we will be in. Of course we will be monitoring the storm extremely closely over the next 24 hours as well as during the drive.

View attachment 350522



The storm will be making landfall on Friday in the Carolinas. You said you need to drive through there on Friday...
 

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