You say yourself you are a hurricane noob,
please take seriously the warnings of all the people on this thread who have lived through significant hurricanes. It still sort of sounds like you are planning (hoping?) on going.
Everything everyone is saying is accurate:
- Resources such as hotel rooms will be scarce hundreds of miles from the evacuation zone. Taking up a hotel room is like laughing at evacuees and saying, I got mine, screw you. And speaking of evacuees...
- A million people are being evacuated. (Or being advised to, if not ordered to.) Think about that for a minute. Yes, some of them will go to shelters or stay with friends or family, but a million people is a LOT of people
- Contra flow on the highways is a real, and significant thing. See the above photo.
- If the region experiences "only" tropical storm or tropical depression force winds, these are still significant winds. Hell, when we get sustained 20mph winds where I live now trees and powerlines are downed. They are not significant in the sense that roofs will blow away, but some property (and tree) damage is likely.
- Trees and powerlines may be downed. Downed powerlines are no joke. The power grid across the entire region may be disrupted for days. No power in an eastern coastal state immediately after a hurricane will probably mean sweltering, humid conditions.
- Even if the winds don't materialize that far inland, the predicted rainfall amounts is serious. Even "just" 4-6 inches of rain in saturated soils is hazardous. Streams and rivers may be at or above flood stage. It is very dangerous to drive through flooded roads, even a few inches of swiftly moving water can sweep a car away. Roads or bridges may be washed out simply because of water and not wind. (In fact, some of the most damaging hurricanes were because of rainfall and water damage, not wind. Last year's Hurricane Harvey damage in Houston was primarily water.)
- Gas stations may be out of fuel hundreds of miles from the predicted landfall area.
- As many people have pointed out, this is not a "normal" hurricane.
I've lived through several major hurricanes in southern New England (Bob and Gloria, one of which spawned
tornadoes the next town over from us, 100 miles from the coast). I was evacuated from the eastern shore of Maryland during Hurricane Bonnie - although that one ultimately made landfall in North Carolina, for a while, we were in the landfall bulls-eye. Once it made landfall it stalled and moved up the coast extremely slowly. So much rain fell.
Hurricanes are no joke. Hurricane forecasting is a difficult thing, and no, they can't predict very accurately where it will make landfall, or when, or what the condition of the storm will be at that point. However, it is extremely important that people heed evacuation warnings when they are called. There is real risk, and authorities do not take such significant action lightly unless they thought the danger was real. Yes, sometimes conditions change and in retrospect evacuations seems foolhardy. Hindsight is 20/20. Authorities take this into account and don't issue notices blithely. It's not a game. However, when people ignore evacuations (or simply can't get out, or wait too long) that's when tragedies like Katrina happen. Heading
into an area "as far away as" 250 miles from the coast is foolhardy.
Just the opinion of a random internet stranger.