Hwys leaving Florida

[OLD AS I]

Am in Ontario Canada, have been to Florida a couple of times via air so really not sure of hwy layouts.
During the hurricanes we'd watch the news and a few times we saw aerial shots of a major hwy, 2 lanes north bound and 2 lanes south bound.
North bound lane bumper to bumper and at a crawl, south bound empty ?
Why wouldn't the authorities open the south bound lanes and allow north bound traffic to use it particularly during day light hours. If I had of been sitting in the north bound traffic I would have been across the blvd or at the next exit got on the south bound lanes and headed north during day light hours.

 

[PeteVS]

There's alway someone headed back because they forgot their cell phone charger!

 

[Fibber Mcgee]

They did eventually open both sides (they are set up to do that) and they had the emergency lane as a travel lane before that. I think it's just hard to evacuate 6 million people from a peninsula.

 

[Capn John]

Plus they were using the shoulder as a third lane

 

[Cecil/WV]

For a period of time, they kept the south lanes open for gas delivery to those trying to go north.

 

[DavidG]

In the Florida Keys where there is effectively only one through highway (U.S.1) and long stretches of it are one lane in each direction, when a hurricane evacuation is declared both lanes are used northbound as a standard practice.

 

[G.M.]

It took over a week to get mail from Fl. To Pa.
There was no problem with the post office. I
figure the roads were the problem. G.M.