Mattapoisett Hurricane Primer: Inundation And Evacuation

Note the "Mattepoisett" spelling...

Hurricane season is upon us, and we are nearing the peak of it.

Now, we're in Massachusetts, and we haven't been hit dead-on by a hurricane since the 1990s. That means that we don't get them often, and it means that we are long overdue.

They aren't a frequent enough event that you should walk around wringing your hands or anything. However, there are certain things that a wise person might do which can actually eliminate a lot of the hand-wringing.

Ironically, the first step to a peaceful mind is to view some Disaster Porn!

We have two maps for you to look at, and they are specific to your town. One is for Inundation, and the other is for Evacuation. They pertain to a direct-hit hurricane hitting your town at mean high tide.

"Inundation" means "covered in water," although you can call it a Deathflood or a Sea Plague if that gets your people motivated. It refers to which areas in town will be covered with seawater (important distinction, these maps do NOT project freshwater flooding) if you play host to a hurricane.

The map for Inundation (the top one) is color-coded, with light green, dark green, yellow and red. Those colors equate to which areas will get wet in what kind of storm, i.e. Category 1, 2, 3 and 4. Where you see colors changing on the map, that's where the experts think it will require a greater storm to flood that area in seawater.

The map for Evacuation (right) is less complicated. If you look at the Inundation map for a moment and then look at the Evacuation map, the logic will eventually make sense. The red areas of the map essentially say "Those People Have To Leave," and the yellow areas say "You Have To Leave, Too."

See how you compare to your neighboring towns with the complete list of Inundation maps and Evacuation maps.

Remember, storm surge is not the only threat from a hurricane. Things like falling branches, freshwater flooding, lightning, flying debris, slick roads, tornadoes, downed power lines, looters and a thousand other variables can mess you up plenty when the barometer drops heavy.

Mattapoisett's status as a hurricane target depends on a battle between the barrier effect provided by Falmouth and The Islands and the funnel effect that Buzzards Bay has on storm surge being pushed ahead of a big hurricane.

As we say in all of these storm articles we write, Buzzards Bay provides a similar effect on cyclones to what you see happen in Bangladesh. Water goes into the big end and the narrowing of the bay leaves the water with nowhere to go but Forward and Higher.

There is a saying that civilization stops at the waterline, and that we all enter the food chain after that... but not always at the top. Mattapoisett has taken shots from the sea on several occasions, be it shark attack (1930s) or monster storms in 1938, 1944, 1954 and 1991. You can see the post-Bob ruins of Master P in one of these fine videos collected by my main man at West Island Weather.

Aside from the torn-apart-coastline shots you see with every storm, Matty P also offers a unique chance for the ocean to shut down not one but two major highways. Estimates vary, but even a Category 3 storm (granted, which would be among the worst in the state's White Guy history) would run a strong chance of making both Route 6 and Route 195 impassable in the Mattapoisett River area. Aucoot Cove flooding of a high order could also send ocean water across Route 6.

Aside from coves and river mouths, Matta P also gets flooding along her immediate coastline. It's not the place you want to be if a storm hits. As you might imagine, Matty has an extensive area which would merit evacuation in even a moderate hurricane. Places along the Mattapoisett River would be evacuated up to 195 in a minimal hurricane, and a slobberknocker of a storm woud push evacuations due to ocean water flooding miles past 195.

A hurricane in Mattapoisett ain't to be played with. Anyone who lives there, or even anyone who plans to visit, should be aware of which areas are prone to flooding and which areas will need to be evacuated.

We want you alive for monetary reasons, as we live off your site visits. We want you alive for professional pride reasons, i.e. "If they listened to me, they lived." We also want you alive for regular, nice-people reasons. Like the Boy Scouts say, "Be prepared."

Truro Hurricane Primer: Inundation And Evacuation

Hurricane season is upon us, and we are nearing the peak of it.

Now, we're in Massachusetts, and we haven't been hit dead-on by a hurricane since the 1990s. That means that we don't get them often, and it means that we are long overdue.

They aren't a frequent enough event that you should walk around wringing your hands or anything. However, there are certain things that a wise person might do which can actually eliminate a lot of the hand-wringing.

Ironically, the first step to a peaceful mind is to view some Disaster Porn!

We have two maps for you to look at, and they are specific to your town. One is for Inundation, and the other is for Evacuation. They pertain to a direct-hit hurricane hitting your town at mean high tide.

"Inundation" means "covered in water," although you can call it a Deathflood or a Sea Plague if that gets your people motivated. It refers to which areas in town will be covered with seawater (important distinction, these maps do NOT project freshwater flooding) if you play host to a hurricane. 

The map for Inundation (the top one) is color-coded, with light green, dark green, yellow and red. Those colors equate to which areas will get wet in what kind of storm, i.e. Category 1, 2, 3 and 4. Where you see colors changing on the map, that's where the experts think it will require a greater storm to flood that area in seawater.

The map for Evacuation (right) is less complicated. If you look at the Inundation map for a moment and then look at the Evacuation map, the logic will eventually make sense. The red areas of the map essentially say "Those People Have To Leave," and the yellow areas say "You Have To Leave, Too."

See how you compare to your neighboring towns with the complete list of Inundation maps and Evacuation maps.

Remember, storm surge is not the only threat from a hurricane. Things like falling branches, freshwater flooding, lightning, flying debris, slick roads, tornadoes, downed power lines, looters and a thousand other variables can mess you up plenty when the barometer drops heavy.

Truro is very exposed to the sea, but also has a few advantages that limit the damage of hurricanes somewhat. Most people in Truro live on the bay side of town, rather than the open ocean part. Truro's east-facing beaches have an impressive wall of dunes that swat down ocean waves like they were goaltending.

Truro is also well-positioned in that hurricanes that hit them will be somewhat blunted by contact with the South Coast or the more western/southern parts of Cape Cod. Cape Cod Bay is colder than the Gulf Stream Atlantic or even Buzzards Bay, and cold water is the deathblow for a hurricane.

This doesn't mean that you should schedule 18 holes or anything. Truro will be a very dangerous place to be in a hurricane. Pamet Harbor becomes the Pamet Marsh and then becomes the Pamet River and flows into Pamet Hollow. All of them will be a fine way for ocean water to move ashore.

Pamet Harbor is going to be the first place that the water starts coming ashore, and some other parts of town (including the beaches east of East Harbor) will also flood during minimal hurricanes. The land east of East Harbor around Pilgrim Lake would also be a threat to flood, although it require a next level-type of storm. Corn Hill Beach and Fisher Beach could go submarine if the storm is bad enough.

Truro is in the mix as far as worrying about hurricanes goes, and any resident (or even visitor) should have an idea of where they score on these maps. 

Hey, we'll throw in the Provincetown map, because we're good like that!

"Truro" is one of the very few words that people with Boston accents pronounce both Rs in...

Cover Your Assonet: A Freetown Hurricane Primer

Hurricane season is upon us, and we are nearing the peak of it.

Now, we're in Massachusetts, and we haven't been hit dead-on by a hurricane since the 1990s. That means both that we don't get them often, and it means that we are long overdue.

They aren't a frequent enough event that you should walk around wringing your hands or anything. However, there are certain things that a wise person might do which can eliminate a lot of the hand-wringing.

Ironically, the first step to a peaceful mind is to view some Disaster Porn!

We have two maps for you to look at, and they are specific to your town. One is for Inundation, and the other is for Evacuation. They pertain to a direct-hit hurricane hitting your town at mean high tide.

"Inundation" means "covered in water," although you can call it a Deathflood or a Sea Plague if that gets your people motivated. It refers to which areas in town will be covered with seawater (important distinction, these maps do NOT project freshwater flooding) if you play host to  hurricane. 

The map for Inundation (the top one) is color-coded, with light green, dark green, yellow and red. Those colors equate to which areas will get wet in what kind of storm, i.e. Category 1, 2, 3 and 4. Where you see colors changing on the map, that's where the experts think it will require a greater storm to flood that area in seawater.

The map for Evacuation (right) is less complicated. If you look at the Inundation map for a moment and then look at the Evacuation map, the logic will eventually make sense. The red areas of the map essentially say "Those People Have To Leave," and the yellow areas say "You Have To Leave, Too."

You'd think that saltwater flooding would be something Freetown people wouldn't have to worry about, but No.

Freetown has the ominously-named Three Mile River (never name a river or an island "Three Mile" or even "Eight Mile," for that matter) flowing up in her guts from Mount Hope Bay. The Taunton River also gets in on the saltwater redistribution action.

Those rivers are fine conductors of ocean water, should a large surge push ashore. This makes the village of Assonet very vulnerable. Assonet Bay Shores, which is already out in the water some, could become Atlantean in a bad enough storm.

It could also be tough to get to the Stop 'n' Shop Redistribution Center, so get that bread and milk early.

I kind of hung the + and - zoom thingy over Assonet in the shot at the bottom, my bad, folks.

The Commonwealth was good enough to supply us with a pile of maps for coastal communities. Here are the Inundation Maps for each town, and here are the Evacuation Maps. See how good you have it compared to your neighbors.

Freetown is a small town, although it covers a good sized area. Most of that area, and I mean like 98% of it, won't have to worry about ocean water. However, like the Mexican politician said when an American told him that the US "didn't take that much of Mexico,' a hurricane will take "the part with the roads."

Ocean water is only one small part of the danger associated with hurricanes. You don't ever have to see salt water to get high winds, flying debris, downed wires, freshwater flooding, lightning strikes, sewer overflow, tornadoes, looters, falling tree limbs... you know, the whole nine.

However small a town Freetown may be, you can be sure that it will cost more than 20 coats, some cookware, some cloth, some iron tools (supporters of a Wampanoag casino will be pleased to know that the purchase price of Freetown included "a dozen hoes") and a hatchet to rebuild Freetown.

Knowledge is power, so get a good look at these maps, see what the score looks like for your house, and have the bones of a plan in place by the time hurricane season gets on... which, unfortunately, is Now.

Wareham Hurricane Primer: Inundation And Evacuation

Wareham has a long and lengthy history with ol' Mister Hurricane. Just looking at that map above without knowing what it means, you can see that trouble would be afoot for ?ham if the barometer drops too much.

Wareham has taken beatings from Hurricane Bob, the Long Island Express, and a dozen other storms, and that's just in White Guy history. If you work in the native population, the numbers become countless after an eon or ten.

The 'Ham ( I really want to write a cop show for TV, base it in Onset, and call it "The 'Ham") suffers from the same problem which places like Bangladesh have.... it exists at the tip of a funnel. The funnel is formed by Buzzards Bay. That's the body-of-water Buzzards Bay, not the village part of Bourne... those people share the same Bangladeshian funnel problem that ?ham has.

Hurricanes, with both the wind and storm surge, push water ahead of them. That's actually what the storm surge is. It's not a problem in the middle of the Atlantic, but that water has to come ashore somewhere, and that somewhere is often at what they call the head of the bay. That's Wareham.

In fact, the "where" sound in Wareham may actually refer to "where the water goes." Water cares very little about washing over roads, cars, houses, people....  once it gets off the beach, we have a natural disaster on our hands.

You have two maps here, folks... the upper one shows Inundation, and the lower one shows Evacuation Zones. The maps are from June of 2014, and- to my knowledge- are the plan du jour.

"Inundation" is a nice, painless term that means "covered in water," but you can change it to "Deathflood" or "Sea Plague" if it gets the troops moving quicker.

They (these maps are produced by the National Hurricane Center) assume that Wareham gets a direct hit at high tide, and follow the (groan) SLOSH model of seawater redistribution that MEMA and others use. They are assuming worst case everything insofar as wind direction, phase of moon (check that, they use Mean High Tide), forward speed of the storm and everything else goes.

Those pretty colors are actually differing levels of devastation. I had a map/legend thingy in the Photobucket somewhere, but I'll just say that light green is a Category 1 storm, dark green is a Category 2, yellow is a Category 3, and red is a Category 4.

For a basis of comparison, what Wareham got from Hurricane Gloria may have been a weak Category 1 storm (she came ashore in Connecticut), the Blizzard of '78 was about a strong Category 1/weak Category 2, Hurricane Bob was  moderate Category 2 ("moderate" and "Category 2 hurricane" are kind of odd words to string together), old timers may have witnessed Hurricane Carol at Category 3, and The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 was a strong Category 3 made worse (Blue Hills got a 186 mph wind gust) by her forward speed.

The colors show which sort of storm will inundate which areas. Light green means you are hurting in even a weak hurricane. Any shift in colors after light green means that the storm will have to kick it up a notch to reach that area. Red areas are places that will only suffer- but suffer they will- in a Category 4 storm, the likes of which hasn't been seen by White Men in these parts. Hurricane Bob was our 11th deadliest storm ever in Massachusetts, in case you were wondering where your memories rank all-time.

The lower map, Evacuation Zones, is a bit easier to follow. They have three zones of evacuation. The third zone is reserved for storms we don't get, because I never saw the third color, and I looked at 30 town maps. The other colors break down as red = They Have To Leave and yellow = You Have To Leave, Too.

If you stare at the top map a bit an then stare at the bottom map, you'll get the basic idea of the Hows and Whys.

This is a frightening amount of Inundation territory. Wareham is home to 21,000 people. Almost all of them would be underwater in this scenario. To make it worse, these maps only show part of the problem. There will be high winds, downed wires, falling tree limbs, river flooding, sewer overflow, road washouts... you know, the whole nine.

I can leave the worrying to you. It's my job to provide the maps and some insight. My work is done here. Godspeed.

Hurricane Inundation Maps

Evacuation Zone Maps

Bourne Hurricane Primer II: Evacuation

In yesterday's article, we talked about how Bourne would suffer from inundation in a hurricane. As you may have learned, it will flood heavily. If a bit of water gets in the basement, it is only a minor irritant, no big deal in the great scheme of things. If ocean water is getting into the chimney, that's a whole other animal. A big hurricane could render large sections of Bourne uninhabitable.

Unless you have a boat and even if you do, you probably want to make plans that involve fleeing before you can surf into someone's second story window. Chance favors the prepared mind.

I'm not here to say that I know better than you and that you should move when I say you should. I grew up in a coastal neighborhood, and always resented authorities who get all bossy and peremptory about beach conditions to people who live there. Ideally, the police would be asking the residents for their advice. Someone living in Monument Beach knows more about when and how Monument Beach floods than some rookie cop or some Bourne town reporter who might live in Bournedale. He even knows more than people from areas that flood worse, like Scituate or Florida.

What I plan to do is read the Cape Cod Emergency Traffic Plan and look over the FEMA Evacuation Zone Maps for Bourne, Massachusetts. I can then turn 15 pages of text into one lengthy blog entry, and leave you with the resources to find out additional information.

I could waste a lot of time defining the mission statement of the CCETP, but someone has already done that:

The Cape Cod Emergency Traffic Plan (CCETP) has been developed to facilitate the
egress of a high volume of traffic from Cape Cod in the event of a hurricane, particularly
during peak tourist season. Although developed for a hurricane scenario, this ‘All
Hazards’ Plan has been designed to be utilized in a number of emergency situations.
The plan’s main goals are to ensure the safety of the community in the event of
destructive weather or other hazards requiring the orderly but rapid movement of
motorists off Cape Cod and the Islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard; and
prepare for the temporary sheltering of displaced persons resulting from the evacuation
of potential flood areas and motorists unable to exit the Cape due to the closure of the
Bourne and Sagamore Bridges.

That's a tall order. Let's see how they are going to handle that, shall we? 

The CCETP was born after Hurricane Edouard's approach in 1996. It was five years after Hurricane Bob, and people fled the Cape in droves. Traffic on Route 6 was backed up 18-40 miles (Wikipedia said 18, FEMA said 40), to the Orleans rotary. Eddie stayed offshore, but the spectre of him slamming into a 30 mile convoy of trapped, car-bound refugees was too scary to ignore.

FEMA then gathered up all of the serious people to craft this plan, which I now have the 2013 version of.

It is not an evacuation plan. FEMA feels it is unlikely that an event would occur that would require the evacuation of the whole Cape. It is more of a plan to manage traffic in the event that low-lying areas of Cape Cod had to be evacuated. They anticipate that many coastal residents may just move inland a bit, utilize the emergency shelters offered, or just get off of Cape Cod before traffic emergency conditions go into effect.

I didn't see anything in the CCETP related to an accident at the Plymouth nuclear power plant. Unless the rumors of them closing the bridges to keep Cape Codders out of the way of Plymouth residents as they flee are true, a nuclear event would be a full-Cape evacuation, even if they didn't order it. I'm not sure if they have a plan in place for that, I'll try to find out.

It is also important to remember that the Governor of Massachusetts can order a traffic ban in blizzards. He's probably not above doing it in a hurricane, either. This adds a get-out-while-you-can aspect to any evacuation consideration.

FEMA and MEMA set this CCETP up in easy-to-follow blocs, and I'll work along their outline.

The concept of the CCETP is based upon the need to eliminate the causes of
congestion and keep traffic flowing in the area of the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges
and the main arteries leading up to them, Routes 6 & 28. This will be accomplished
primarily by the application of four traffic pattern alterations that:

1) Prohibit off-Cape access to Routes 6 & 28 at the base of both bridges;

2) Control access to certain exits for the Scenic Highway, Sandwich Road
and along Route 6 to limit traffic attempting to merge into the main stream
of off-Cape traffic;

3) Create flexibility in the opening and closing of exits by the MSP in order
to expedite off-Cape traffic flow across the Sagamore and Bourne
Bridges; and 

4) Detour traffic to alternate roadways in order to reduce congestion.  

Whuh-whuh-what?? That's a pretty heavy opening salvo. 

That going-on-Cape ban will break up families if Mom or Dad can't get home from work quickly enough. I'm not a cop- I'm kind of the opposite of one, actually- but I think I can speak for them when I say that the I-gotta-get-home-and-rescue-the-schnauzer argument for being allowed to cross the bridges during these sort of bans would be poorly met. Even if the cops were allowing it on a case-by-case basis, you would be going to the back of a very long line, and would eventually be telling your story to a man who has probably heard 1000 better ones in the last hour.

#2 looks like a ban on entering Route 6 at the Christmas Tree Shop on-ramp, which is actually a reasonable idea being proposed for peak-period non-emergency closings by no less than state rep Randy Hunt. That also looks like a ban on dipping out of the Bourne Capeside rotary and using Sandwich Road to get to the Sagamore Bridge.

Sagamore residents may find themselves in a situation where they get 50 yards from the bridge as they flee the storm, only to have to turn around at the blocked on-ramp, crawl through the masses on 6A and 130 back to Exit 2, and try again.

#3 seems to me to be a legal justification for the MSP (Massachusetts State Police, they have an appendix for acronyms in the FEMA report) to close Exits 2-6 westbound on Route 6 to keep people off of low-lying Route 6A. There is also some Route 28 stuff, but we'll get to that with the map talk.

The decisions to do this are made in several stages. The stage of Preparedness is ongoing, months and even years before a storm. The approach of the storm sets in motion the Stand-By Stage, where the wheels of the emergency response are set in motion. If all goes poorly enough, we get the Decision Stage, where the authorities activate the CCETP. This becomes the Execution Stage, where the roadblocks and detours start going up.

It is here that the authorities:

1) Prohibit access to Routes 6 & 28 at the southern, Cape side, base of both bridges;

2) Control access to the Scenic Highway, Sandwich Road and Route 6 to limit 

traffic attempting to merge into the main stream of off-Cape traffic;

3) Allow MSP flexibility in the opening and closing of exits in order to expedite off-Cape traffic flow across the bridges

4) Detour traffic to alternate roadways in order to reduce congestion.
 

The Execution Stage has two components, Traffic Operations (Phase I) and Sheltering Operations (Phase II).

I'm going to cut-n-paste a lot, so bear with me. You want to be hearing this from Them rather than from Me anyhow. It works better for everyone.

Execution Stage: Traffic Operations (Phase I)

PHASE I

Off-Cape Traffic heading west on Route 6W to Route 3 can proceed over the
Sagamore Bridge flyover and continue on Route 3N at exit 1B.

Off-Cape Traffic heading west on Route 6W traveling to the Bourne Bridge to access
routes 25/195/495 will have multiple options:

a. Traffic can detour off Route 6W at Exit 2 in Sandwich, travel South on Route 130, enter the Joint Base Cape Cod (JBCC) (formerly Massachusetts Military Reservation) at the Convoy Gate and follow the detour through Otis AFB and Camp Edwards to Route 28N at the Otis Rotary. Traffic then travels north to the Bourne Bridge and Routes 25/195/495;

or,

b. Traffic can choose to disregard the detour on Rte 6W
at Exit 2 above, and follow Route 6W to Route 3N
where they can detour at Exit 7 in Plymouth and take
Route 44W to the Route 44 rotary in Middleboro and
access Route 495. Traffic can travel Route 495 North
to access Routes 24, 95 and other points north; or
Route 495 South to access Routes 25, 195 or other
points south.

or,

c. As an option, the Massachusetts State Police will
monitor traffic flow and may open or close detours as
necessary. This includes the option of opening the
Route 6 exit ramp (Scenic Highway) between exits 1A
and 1B after the Sagamore Bridge. That exit will
open or close as directed by the MSP in order to
minimize congestion.

Local traffic traveling on Route 6W can utilize Exit 1A after the Sagamore Bridge for
local traffic only. No access to Rte 28/25 via Scenic Highway.

Off-Cape Traffic heading north on Route 28 to Routes 25/195/495 can travel over the
Bourne Bridge and continue to those routes.

The Cape-side Bourne Bridge Rotary will be blocked to prevent cross-rotary
traffic. Plan allows only north-south access to and from the Bridge via Route 28, and
local traffic only via Trowbridge and Sandwich Roads. 

The big Take from this is that you will be detoured through the military base, but not and I repeat NOT via a forced detour. This would be the ideal way for someone in Sandwich who had to get to 495 to go. The first (1A) mainland exit off of Sagamore would be limited to people who could flash Bourne/Sandwich/Plymouth IDs. Drivers hoping to use the Scenic Highway to cut from Sagamore to 28/25 will get denied at the goal line.

Again, we point out that the Cape-side Bourne Bridge rotary will cease to be circular in the CCETP. If you approach it from Route 28, your only option is straight over. Traffic will be allowed to use Sandwich and Trowbridge Roads only if it is local.

But wait... there's more!

Off-Cape traffic heading north on Route 28 which needs to get to the Sagamore Bridge to go North of Route 3 should either:
a) Access Route 151 in Falmouth to Rte. 28 to Rte. 130
to Route 6;

or,

b) Traffic can cross the Bourne Bridge, follow Route
25N, to Route 495N and take detour at Exit 5 (Route
18/44) and follow Route 44E to Route 3 north or
south. 

Local traffic traveling on Route 28N can use Waterhouse Rd. to access shelters at
Bourne Middle School and Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School.

Local traffic traveling on Route 28N can cross the Bourne Bridge and use Exit 2 on
Rte. 25W, to access local shelters and local destinations in Buzzards Bay and
Wareham.

Exit 3 (rte. 6) on Rte. 25W will be closed and the Scenic Highway will not be
accessible from the Mainland-side Bourne Rotary in Buzzards Bay, in order to eliminate
cross rotary traffic. 

This is a worst case scenario plan, meaning that it implies a direct hit from a strong storm at peak high tides is necessary to gain the inundation potential and evacuation necessity we're kicking around here.

Phase II involves an even worse-than-worst case scenario where the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges have been closed, most likely due to winds getting past 70 mph. You don't want to be up on a bridge and have this happen.

1. Both bridges must now be closed to all traffic.

2. Rte 6W will be closed at Exit 2 in Sandwich, and Rte 28N will be closed at the Otis Rotary.

3. All traffic between those points and the bridges will be allowed to cross.
The bridges will be closed when this residual traffic has passed.

4. Any motorists still on the road will then have the option of going to designated emergency parking areas in the JBCC and being shuttled to shelter on the JBCC, or seeking their own shelter elsewhere, until the storm passes. 

If you see a block-the-road sized DPW or Army vehicle being moved into place at the Otis Rotary, stomp the gas and get into that last mix of escape-the-Cape cars. Otherwise, you'll be sleeping at the same base they were going to stick those El Salvador kids in.

It will make great differences in the quality of your immediate future if you drive inland until you find a Motel 6 with electricity and vacancies than if you crowd in with 20000 people on a military base. You'll be happy, the family who got your cot at the shelter will be happy, and I- having helped the process along with my work here- will be happy.

If you're skipping through the article and just taking a quick look to plot your getaway, we remind you that this is Phase II of the plan, and Phase I involves blocking off Sandwich Road and the Scenic Highway.

Tow trucks will be in place to move disabled vehicles, and shuttles/parking will be provided for those still on the road when the bridges close. The tow trucks are already contracted for this potential event. They will just tow you off the road, not to your house in Quincy or anything. I can't say if or what they would be charging.

This is the nightmare, as neither you nor me nor the government knows how many people will be trapped behind enemy lines when the storm shuts down the bridges. They don't know how much water they'll need, how much food they'll need, how many beds they'll be short by, how many buses they'll need to move refugees, how long people will have to stay at the base, and a zillion other variables.

Maybe you won't have to worry about that. How do you know which areas of town authorities will be evacuating? For that matter, how do they know?

See below:

Doesn't that look like fun?

Here's how to read this map up above. The maroon areas represent places that would have evacuations (I'm not sure if these are mandatory or voluntary) in a Category 1 storm. The yellow areas are ones that would require evacuation in Category 2 storms. There are also other colors for stronger storms, but our maps seem to just cover up to Category 2. The other colors may just be for Southern states.

You'll notice that Sagamore Beach has it fairly nice, as does Sagamore itself. Just evacuate those beaches, and clear out along the Canal. Bournedale is like a hockey team, with barely any color at all. Just stay off the Canal in Bournedale, although I'll add right here that those colors on the map do NOT represent freshwater flooding potential. I looked it up and everything.

Bourne and Wareham are the very head of the body of water that we call Buzzards Bay, and the village that we call Buzzards Bay is smack dab in the path of the heaviest storm surge. Drive by the Buzzards Bay fire station if you wish to see a sign showing the water level in the 1938 storm, but I can save you the trouble by saying that it is about 4-5 feet high.

All of Buzzards Bay and most of East Wareham/Onset will have to be evacuated in the event of even a minor storm. This guaran-damn-tees that the roads will be jammed before the real Cape Codders get to the bridges.

Crossing the bridges is a bad move. Bourne Village, Pocasset, Gray Gables, Mashnee, Monument Beach and Cataumet all have areas that would have to be evacuated, many of them densely populated. Evacuation will be life-or-death for people in places like Mashnee.

As you can see from the snippets of Falmouth, Sandwich, Mashpee and Barnstable on the map, other towns will also be clearing people out in large numbers. One of the benefits of living in Bourne is that you get a little bit of a head start on the rest of the Cape Codders when it comes time for the quittin' and splittin'. The towns beyond Bourne and Wareham heading inland aren't evacuating. You also get first crack at hotels inland.

There isn't a map for getting back onto Cap[e Cod after a major storm, but we'll try to dig up some information on that for our next Hurricane Primer. We're thinking that Primer III may be History, and IV will be Preparations.

In closing, we'd like to remind you that informed people are likely to make better decisions, and those who make better decisions have a better chance of surviving in an emergency.

If you're reading this article, we definitely want you alive, so that you perform more site visits for us. We also want you alive for reasons of professional pride, i.e. "Well, at least the people who listened to me were OK." We also want you safe and sound in a not-overtaxing-emergency-services sense, and we want you alive in a friendly, neighborly way.