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As hurricanes become more intense, evacuations are more important and more expensive

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Destructive hurricanes have affected millions of Americans this year and forced many to evacuate. Stephan Bisaha of the Gulf States Newsroom reports that hurricane evacuations have only gotten more expensive.

STEPHAN BISAHA, BYLINE: Hurricane Francine was forecast to go straight through New Orleans in September. There wasn't an evacuation order for the city, but Nick Aucoin was worried about power outages while caring for his newborn and decided not to stick around.

NICK AUCOIN: It is raining, and it's been raining since I left my house.

BISAHA: So Aucoin and his family of four started driving to Alabama and along the way, picked up their first evacuation expense - snacks.

AUCOIN: So far, the grapes at 3.99 a pound are pretty much a budget killer so far.

BISAHA: Add in gas, a hotel and full meals, and Aucoin estimates the trip would cost him somewhere between 500 and $2,000. That's roughly what evacuations cost these days, and it's way more than it used to be.

PALLAB MOZUMDER: I'm not surprised to see there is a huge price hike on the evacuation expenses in the recent years.

BISAHA: Pallab Mozumder is an economist with Florida International University. He says evacuation costs today can be about five times higher compared to 20 years ago. That's after adjusting for inflation. Mozumder says that's because hurricanes are getting more complex.

MOZUMDER: For example, think about this Hurricane Milton. In less than 24 hours, it jumped from Category 1 to 5.

BISAHA: Besides being more destructive, these fast-growing storms can catch people off guard, leading to late evacuations, jammed up roads, packed hotels and higher prices. Of course, there are ways to keep costs down like going to a county shelter or staying with family out of town. And when it comes to Hurricane Francine, Nick Aucoin was lucky. The storm was weaker than Helene and Milton, and he ended up returning home after just two days.

AUCOIN: Hey, Stephan. We're back home on the couch.

BISAHA: The final cost for his 48-hour evacuation - $505.

AUCOIN: Not counting the school supplies that we bought while we were there.

BISAHA: Yeah, we can leave those out. You probably need to get those anyway.

AUCOIN: Yes. Yes.

BISAHA: By evacuation standards - pretty cheap. But he acknowledges that's far from cheap for everyone.

AUCOIN: Evacuating is sort of a luxury, you know?

BISAHA: And with hurricane seasons continuing to intensify, that luxury may become more often a necessity, whether or not people can afford it. For NPR News, I'm Stephan Bisaha in Birmingham, Alabama.

(SOUNDBITE OF TENDAI SONG, "TIME IN OUR LIVES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Stephan Bisaha
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