Hurricane Death Gates in Virginia--Do any other coastal areas have these?

They put these gates up a few years ago to help during a hurricane evacuation. Hurricane Gates

The part that bothers me is that the gates are on each exit but they just are not on the exits (so you wont get off and go back) but also on the entrances to the highways and ON BOTH SIDES of the exit. I know they want to stop people from going backwards at the gates but why wouldnt they let you GET onto the highway? These are huge steel beams like the ones that stop you from entering the HOV lanes in most major cities.

[edit on 29-10-2008 by Cairowoman]

[edit on 29-10-2008 by Cairowoman]

[edit on 30-10-2008 by Cairowoman]

I also wanted to add that these are in the Hampton Roads area of the state. Everyone who lives there (1 million people) knows that if a large hurricane were to hit here we would be screwed royally. There are only 4 ways out and 3 involve 2 lane underwater bridge tunnels that get flooded and closed for high winds pretty quickly during storms and the 4th way is towards the Outer Banks where most hurricanes come ashore.

Here is a link that is interesting that can be added. geology.com... es.shtml

Wow if this is true that is scary!

They won't let you get ON the highway because if you get on the highway you'll be going into oncoming traffic if those gates are down in an evacuation situation.

I live north of you, but come down that way often. I've been there during rush hour, or during accidents on 64W. It's not a lot of fun. I'd hate to see it if everyone in that area decided to get out all at once...

I know the thought is quite frightening. It would be worse than Katrina--PS If it werent for the outer banks they would be toast. I wonder if all of the military installation being there has something to do with why they really havent been hit.

Yeah, I saw these and thought they were stupid! I noticed the exit from 264 to 64 towards Chesapeake/Suffolk has these gates. And, that's where I'd head in the case of a hurricane. I'm not going to Hampton! No way. I'd want to head south/west past Franklin. So, guess at the first sign of a big one, I'd better get on the road before they close the gate--lol

From the picture it looks like it wouldn't be too difficult to operate the "gate", which looks little more than a security shack gate, and be able to get on your way.

Well, you could try that, but my guess is that the police, VDOT people or the VA Nat'l guards posted at the gates would prevent you from raising the gate.

I was just out there for turkey day and wondered what those gates were about...now I know.

edit: oh, and I live in California and haven't seen any gates like this along our highways, hence, my initial confusion when I noticed them in VA...they do kinda stick out being all red and white and on every ramp.
Out here, we have traffic metering lights on the ramps.

[edit on 2-12-2008 by 4N6310]

Late to the party as always!

I grew up in Savannah, GA and we have these gates too. It's a surprisingly simple explanation. In a mandatory evacuation situation with limited exit routes out of a city, both sides of the highway are used.

Hurricane Floyd evac

The gates are kept down on the inbound side to prevent anyone from trying to get on going the "wrong" way. On the outgoing side, the bars are raised and lowered to help the flow of traffic onto the highway (kind of like onramp lights in major cities).

I've been through a couple evacs and they really are helpful when applied properly

I come from the hurricane capitol of Florida and I now live in virginia also, this is nothing new, a lot of hurricane proned states do this. It's also to keep looters out once the storm passes. It helps out a lot to, we did'nt have that when Andrew hit and my place got ramsacked.

It's also for safety to, once the gates shut down they usually keep one open as long as they can before they are ordered to shut them down because the storm is getting to close and if you are that stupid to think you can ride out a Cat 3 or above on the beach then you deserve what you get.

Where i was the eye came over right at high tide and we had storm surge of 20 ft in some places, all the sand dunes were gone. It took over a year to replinish the beach.