By Thomas Lifson, American Thinker
Large swaths of Florida’s heavily populated Gulf Coast have been ordered evacuated. The map below, prepared by the Florida Department of Emergency Management, shows the mandatory areas in reddish colors. The actual evacuation order from the state is found here. At least 300,000 people from the Tampa Bay Area must leave.
It is fortunate that as of the current moment, electric vehicles constitute only about 100,000, out of nearly 8 million vehicles registered to drive on Florida’s roads. What if they all were electric, the (impractical) dream dream of greenies?
Depending on how heavily loaded they were, even assuming everyone had a full battery charge, cars from southern Florida would start running out of juice after 100 – 250 miles. They would then have to spend hours at recharging stations, which would rapidly be clogged with other Cars and trucks waiting their turn, since an electricity “fill up” can easily take an hour or more, as compared to a couple of minutes for gasoline. Cars waiting to be charged would spill onto the highways, potentially blocking traffic.
Those cars that ran out of juice on the highway would block traffic. Even assuming that emergency service vehicles could get to them (unlikely if the entire fleet were electric cars), towing a portable generator (powered by fossil fuels, of course) and recharging the stalled vehicles would take plenty of time, as well, further blocking traffic. The stranded cars would, of course, have no air conditioning, no wipers, no GPS.
In all likelihood, the highways would become vast parking lots, trapping their passengers wherever they happened to be stalled, waiting for the storm and flood waters to reach them, unable to get to safety.
It is a nightmare scenario, and it is perfectly predictable. California and other states have already mandated a conversion to an all-electric vehicle fleet. When natural disaster strikes and the fleet is electric vehicles, the disaster will be compounded if this mad scheme is carried through.
Read the full story here: Electric vehicles and the evacuation of Florida
We all can keep a five gallon gas can in a shed in the yard for such emergencies. Try keeping a spare battery for a Volt in a shed in your yard and then try installing it in your Volt. Okay. That’s great, but as the author of the article pointed out, how far are you going to get with everybody and the dog in the car and suitcases and perhaps water and food all loading down your green car? How long before thousands of enthusiastic greenies are parked right alongside you on I-5? Once you get north of Highway 46, it is a long walk in any direction and what are you going to do? Bring back a 12 volt battery to start your car? How long do you think it will take the auto club to charge up the batteries of all the cars stalled on I-5? What kind of fist fights or worse do you think will break out regarding who has priority for service? Whoa! That should be fun to watch from a safe distance.
Too bad I’m too old to be able to watch all he fun. Can’t happen in CA? How many people evacuated from the Northridge Earthquake? How long was electricity out in some areas?