South Florida residents are using the highway to flee Irma

Interstate 75, which already is a heavily traveled road through Alachua, Marion and Sumter counties, is getting special attention as south Florida residents use the highway to flee Hurricane Irma.

The state Department of Transportation on Wednesday said it is closely monitoring evacuation routes to make sure roadways are clear. That plan may include using aircraft to identify choke points on I-75 and then deploying ground crews to get disabled vehicles out of the way.

Spot monitoring from the air is expected at any time. Full-scale air monitoring would begin if and when the state orders full-scale evacuation, a move that would allow motorists to use emergency lanes while fleeing coastal areas. Such an order had not come as of Wednesday evening.

“If the vehicles cannot be repaired in 15 minutes, they will be moved off the roadway and the family will be taken to a commercial building at the closest exit,” said Preston Bowlin, Marion County’s emergency management director.

“It will be up to the families to figure out what to do after they are dropped off.”

Bowlin said that plan is concerning. What if a family is dropped off at a closed business during the initial stages of the storm? What will they do and where will they go?

Local rescue officials and law enforcement will be ready to help any such stranded motorists.

Throughout the day Wednesday, the Twitter account @flI511_I75, which provides up-to-date traffic reports on I-75, reported northbound backups on I-75 in Manatee, Sumter and Marion counties. Motorists reported heavy traffic on the local stretches of I-75.

Wednesday afternoon, the parking lot was completely full at the northbound I-75 rest stop between the County Road 484 (Belleview) and State Road 200 (Ocala) exits in Marion County. People were parking on the grass and even the approach ramp. Many of those motorists were traveling from south Florida.

Among them were Randy and Sarah Gratz, residents of Big Pine Key in Monroe County. They knew an evacuation order was coming, so they loaded up their car, grabbed their dog, Zipper, and set out for Tennessee.

Randy Gratz said they are taking this storm seriously "because of the events in Texas."

Irma, he said, "looks like a saw blade."

Also stopping at the rest stop were Rochelle and Jim Myers from Boynton Beach. They were headed with their camper-trailer for shelter in south Georgia. They left their home at 6 a.m. Wednesday and were happy to see that Gov. Rick Scott had suspended tolls on the turnpike.

"We felt we had no choice" but to leave, Jim Myers said. "We knew it (an evacuation order) was coming."

The two, who are both retired and live in a mobile home park, walked their pet cat, Bart, and poodle, Mimi, as they took a break. Rochelle, who lived in this area around 2000, said they would find a place to camp but did not plan to stay in the Ocala area.

"Not here. The hurricane may come up the center of the state," she said.

Justin Palazzolo, 40, of Fort Lauderdale, also decided to leave in advance of any orders to do so.

"I live on the New River. My house has hurricane-proof shutters," he said.

Palazzolo said he was heading to Atlanta, which was a destination mentioned by at least three other people at the rest stop, including a man from Naples.

An employee at the front desk at the Quality Inn on State Road 200 just east of I-75 said the hotel was busy and fielding many calls.

"You hear it," she said as the phone rang continuously. An unidentified woman at the desk said she was fleeing the storm and took a room here when she could not find one in Gainesville, where she wanted to stay.

Even on an average day, I-75 in this region is a busy highway. Overall traffic volumes reach 68,500 vehicles per day south of State Road 222 near Gainesville and spike at more than 80,000 just south of State Road 200 in Ocala. The number drops to 40,000 vehicles per day south of the turnpike in Sumter County, according to the latest DOT statistics.

All that traffic inevitably leads to wrecks. In 2011, there were 935 vehicle wrecks on I-75 in Alachua, Marion and Sumter counties. That number soared to 1,538 in 2015.

According to the DOT, the crash rate on I-75 in most of Alachua County is more than 90 percent of the statewide average for similar roads. In much of the Marion and Sumter stretches the crash rate is either that high or 70 percent to 90 percent of the statewide average.