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Savannah Buses Evacuees To Augusta As Hurricane Dorian Approaches
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As Hurricane Dorian — a Category 2 storm as of Tuesday afternoon — continues to approach the coast, Savannah is sending evacuees without transportation to shelters in Augusta on buses.
Savannah Mayor Eddie DeLoach said they’ve learned lessons from prior evacuations including hurricanes Matthew and Irma.
"Unfortunately, it's a lot smoother an operation because we've had three of them in the last four years, so we're kinda getting the hang of it," he said.
MORE: Kemp Warns Hurricane Dorian ‘Expected To Remain Very Powerful’ As It Approaches Georgia Coast
One change this time is that evacuees are waiting inside the Savannah Civic Center, where they can sit down in air conditioning rather than outdoors. However, some evacuaees said they've experienced longer wait times than they did in previous years.
Another change is the buses themselves. In the past, they used school buses. But officials determined that the school district had its own needs, so instead they put out a contract for a private company and this time people are evacuating on chartered buses.
Fewer than 400 people evacuated Savannah on buses as of midday.
Elizabeth Owens was one of them.
“They say ‘Go,’ I'm ready,” Owens said. “I get packed and I go. I don't like staying because you never know what can happen.”
Coastal Congressman Buddy Carter said he's worried people have grown "complacent" after days of watching a slow-moving storm.
“Because of that I think people are just, 'Well, we'll wait and see,'” Carter said. “There's no telling when it could pick up speed and all-of-a-sudden be on top of us.”
Carter said he urges people to follow the instructions of their local emergency managers and evacuate if they're in the evacuation zone.
Officials expect more people to evacuate before the center shuts down at 6 p.m.
Still, the numbers are far below the evacuation for Hurricane Matthew in 2016, when about 2,200 people left town on buses.
These numbers do not include people who take their own transportation.
TRACK HURRICANE DORIAN:
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