Thursday October 6th 2016

The day started cloudy and cool. My energy level was similarly low. By afternoon the sun was out and the temperature reached the low 80s, but my enthusiasm for activity never recovered.

Pond at the Forsyth KOA.

This area of middle Georgia, as it is known, received more evacuees today. Interstate 16 that connects Savannah with Macon GA had the east bound lanes reversed for the first 100 miles. This doubles the number of cars the road can support. My location just a little north of Macon felt the impact of all the traffic. Interstate 75 in front of the campground had completely stopped traffic this afternoon when I started to head out for groceries. I returned to my RV home until tomorrow.

I spent most of the day keeping track of Hurricane Matthew on the TV. DirecTV has created a special channel that rotates between the storm coverage of a number of different TV stations from Fort Lauderdale FL north to Charleston SC. It’s interesting to see the live shots of the storm preparation and the early parts of the storm. All of the TV stations are focused on getting people to obey the evacuation orders. Several Florida stations delivered similar stories about the expected storm surge followed by interviews with someone who is going to ignore the risk and stay on the barrier island. If the waters going to be over your head, why wouldn’t you leave?

The Orlando TV station reported that all of the Theme parks closed at 5PM and will remain closed tomorrow. Disney also evacuated the Fort Wilderness Campground yesterday. There is great concern that RVs, mobile homes and other manufactured housing will not survive hurricane force winds. The Orlando area has shelters setup primarily for residents of mobile home parks. I’m happy to be in middle Georgia away from all the action.

If this storm does as much damage as they are talking about, I don’t know how soon I’ll get back to Florida. I may need to make some new plans over the weekend as the nature of the storm damage becomes clear.