On a gray and rainy Thursday morning in early June, Mother Nature created apt conditions for the state Department of Transportation to hold its annual hurricane evacuation drill of Long Beach Island as rain and a higher-than-normal volume of traffic headed west over the Causeway to points beyond.

The rain was slightly more intense on the barrier island than the consistent drizzle that greeted DOT truck drivers at the state’s maintenance yard in Manahawkin, less than 7 miles from the gateway to…