My last two hurricane adventures were Katrina and Sandy. On BOTH hurricanes, I was already working for the prime in the areas effected. I was working in Gulfport 2-months prior to Katrina hitting the coast and working in Waldorf, MD when Sandy hit the area.
I was lucky because I did not have to drive there with a big "question mark" on all the "if's". If there was immediate work to be invoiced for, if I had a hotel to stay at, if I had to wait to get paid, if I trusted the contractor I was working for, if there was fuel for my truck and food available for me. Fortunately since I was already established and on-site, it was much easer to be utilized with minor issues.
In Pascagoula, I ran contractor sweep crews for Cable One and was more fortunate than the contarctors living in Cable One's backyard in tents, trucks and under cardboard boxes in Gulfport as that area was DESTROYED as compared to Pascagoula. As a matter of fact, I was dissapointed that the Hurricane Katrina destruction was not more referred to prior to Hurricane Michael as it resembeled Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. If the media had televised old Katrina clips, those who chose to "ride out" Michael may have evacuated. I could still smell death under the garbage in the streets of Gulfport/Biloxi and Long Beach 6 months after the hurricane hit. Anyone that worked there can confirm that.
Don't forget your GPS. Chances are that all street signs will be gone and you will have no idea where you are. Garbage and debris will be piled up on both sides of the street because it was cleared with a bulldozer clearing a path...if it was done at all.
All that being said, unless you bring a camper, lots of fuel, food, cash, a generator, have secure tool bins/doors on your vehicle, have a pit-bull to guard against looters when you are not around your stuff, have trust in who you are going to work for or have a confirmation that your hotel/apartment will be there waiting for you, I'd be very cautious. If anyone decides to go in a disaster area as a contractor, just keep enough cash to be able to get home...unlike some of the horror stories I heard about Puerto Rico where your stuck on an island with no way out.
Just remember, the power companies and telephone companies have priority, not only in the field, but they seem to scoop up all the hotels. They possibly had them booked when the hurricane was 200-miles away from landfall. Just be prepared for the worse to happen. I don't want to discourage anybody going there, but the green guy's don't have a clue. As the old saying goes, "This ain't my first rodeo"!
Good luck!
