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Published on Tuesday, September 7, 2004
in the Tallahassee Democrat
ORLANDO, Fla. - Thousands of hurricane evacuees trying to drive back home Tuesday found long lines for gasoline, rain-slicked roads and a higher number of accidents than usual. But for the most part traffic flowed smoothly along the Florida Turnpike, Interstate 75 and Interstate 95.
"Traffic was more than usual, but it wasn't that bad," said Buddy Lackritz, 77, at the Turkey Lake service plaza in Orlando on the Florida Turnpike. Lackritz was returning to his home in Lake Worth with his wife, Elfrieda, after spending three days at a motel in Georgia.
Not everyone was happy with the exodus of returnees.
"People trying to get back should have waited a few more days," Capt. Jeffrey Succi of the Florida Highway Patrol in Ocala on I-75. "We're trying to get emergency crews to the south and it's going to logjam everything."
At least a half dozen cars that had run out of gas were on the side of the highway in the Ocala area alone. There had also been at least 15 car accidents on that stretch in the past 24 hours; normally, it sees only four or five wrecks in a week, Succi said.
"We've had a couple that landed in ditches," Succi said. "Because of the wet ground, we can't get wreckers in there so we put evidence tape around them and leave them."
Traffic on Interstate 10 in north-central Florida was detoured because water from a swamp overflowed the highway.
In southern Florida, drivers were waiting up to an hour and a half at service plazas on the Florida Turnpike, said Lt. Pat Santangelo, a turnpike Florida Highway Patrol spokesman in West Palm Beach.
Law enforcement officers made sure the drivers waiting for gas didn't back up traffic on the turnpike, Santangelo said.
"It's not slow, but it's not fast," Santangelo said of traffic.
Coggins said many secondary roads remain blocked with trees, power lines or water.
Traffic signs are missing and many signals are out.
Coggins said drivers need to treat intersections where the power is out and traffic signals are not working as a four-way stop.
A serious threat to drivers is flooded streets.
"There are still a lot of roads under water," Coggins said.
"Just remember that what doesn't look deep . . . may be a bit deeper than it looks," he said.