Biggest Evacuation In History

Schools in New Jersey and New York City were closed Thursday, and the entire state of New Jersey was under a state of emergency order. The National Weather Service posted a hurricane warning for the New Jersey coastline south of Manasquan Inlet for Thursday afternoon and evening. Flash flood and heavy wind watches were in effect throughout the state.

Residents along the Southeast coast took the boards off their buildings Thursday as Hurricane Floyd moved further north, while the Mid-Atlantic and New England states brace for the storm. CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston reports it is being called the largest peacetime evacuation in U.S. history.

Public safety officials in coastal Georgia prepared for the next disaster - hundreds of thousands of people streaming home after a mandatory evacuation.

"We hope there's not a mad rush to get back in," Chatham County's emergency management chief, Phillip Webber, said Wednesday evening after officials decided that Floyd had moved far enough north to make it safe for residents to return.

In North Carolina, evacuations also reached historic proportions. It is estimated that half of Charleston's 500,000 residents fled their homes, tying up roads for miles.

"We are preparing for an enormous storm," New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman said Wednesday.

Whitman said county and local emergency management officials would order evacuations if necessary, but had not done so yet. The state of emergency will empower the state to deploy the National Guard, the New Jersey State Police and Department of Transportation personnel and equipment.

Delaware Gov. Thomas Carper put a state of emergency into effect Thursday morning. His state expects 5 to 10 inches of rain and winds as high as 85 miles per hour.

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency alerted city and county emergency management officials to activate their operation centers.

AP
Floyd is like to disrupt parts of the Miss America pageant this weekend.

"If it's big enough and it shuts down Atlantic City and floods the city, it could affect the pageant," said Robert L. Beck, CEO of the Miss America Organization.

Officials had no immediate plans to curtail pageant activities, saying that Convention Hall, the 70-year-old boardwalk behemoth that houses the event, is one of the strongest buildings in the city.

But city officials feared the storm would cancel Friday's pageant parade, an Atlantic City fixture that attracts 100,000 people a yar to watch contestants ride down the Boardwalk in open convertibles with fire trucks and marching bands.

"I would be surprised if the weather would permit a parade to proceed," said city business administrator Andrew Mair.

While Florida may have escaped the worst of Hurricane Floyd, about one million people were urged to evacuate the Sunshine State's coast Monday, and NASA all but abandoned Cape Canaveral. Forecasters predicted the monster storm was capable of causing enormous damage, CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports from Miami.

CBS

Lines of cars leaving the Florida coast.

In South Carolina, Gov. Jim Hodges ordered a mandatory evacuation of coastal areas Tuesday, just a week shy of the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Hugo's destructive run through the state. Some 800,000 people were affected by the order.

In Georgia, Gov. Roy Barnes activated the National Guard to aid evacuation.

Officials suspended tolls on Florida's Turnpike, one of three major north-south highways, and other toll roads in central and southern Florida.

The long lines to evacuate started early and lasted late. Some 300,000 South Floridians shared the highway with another 200,000 Central Florida residents, all headed west.

Central Florida tourist attractions and theme parks that have never been through a major hurricane lowered water levels in manmade lagoons, and removing trash cans and anything else that could have become a projectile.

Airlines canceled virtually all flights into and out of southern Florida, while Navy ships left port to ride out the storm at sea, and aircraft were sent inland.