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We have been in Puerto Rico since Feb. 5 and will be returning in the beginning of March. We got a great deal on an Airbnb and I can work from my computer... The freezing temperatures and snow is ridiculous in Chicago, so I'm glad I was able to get away. Hopefully most of the snow will melt in a couple of weeks.
It is not true that 'Biden has banned travel to and from many countries'. Travel to Brazil, South Africa, and much of Europe (the UK, Ireland, and the Schengen) has been restricted, but that does not apply to American citizens or lawful permanent residents or their spouses or a variety of other categories of American residents.
[Note: Aside from South Africa, those restrictions were merely a re-implementation of restrictions that had been in place for months, imposed originally by the Trump administration and then lifted two days before Trump left office for no apparent reason other than to try and complicate Biden's governance as much as possible.]
*In other words, everyone except some unlawful residents are not restricted by Biden's order. That is not a ban.
*Unlawful residents of the United States are highly unlikely to possess an American passport that would allow them back into the country in any case.
*Those so restricted are only restricted from travel to and from those specific countries, which in total comprise less than 20% of all the countries in the world. So the idea that being unable to jet off to Paris or Rio prevents some sort of barrier to leaving the United States is fallacious, as it only removes some and hardly all destinations as available.
*Furthermore, aside from the UK, Ireland and Brazil, all those countries have themselves placed heavy restrictions on the entry of Americans, meaning that Biden's re-imposition of Trump's restrictions didn't alter the already-existing (in)ability of an American to visit all but three of the nearly 200 countries on the planet.
*Mexico remains open to American citizens. Airfares to places like Cancun (and Mazatlan and Acapulco and Cabos, etc.) tend to be relatively cheap because of their popularity and because of subsidies designed to garner tourists and the dollars they spend. The same is true of many other Caribbean resort destinations, which are also more convenient in other ways (shorter flights, no more than a time zone or two away) than jetting off to Europe or South America or South Africa.
*Finally, the foreign travel restrictions obviously don't limit domestic travel. Places like Orlando and Las Vegas are particularly cheap fare in general, due to economies of scale built around the tourism and convention industries in those places. They also don't require a passport.
In short, the idea that a family couldn't leave Texas for someplace where the power wasn't off and the pipes weren't frozen because Joe Biden prohibits unlawful residents from travelling to London is a non- sequitur. All those restrictions do is very slightly restrict the travel possibilities for a very small portion of those living in the United States, and those restrictions exclusively entail barring travel that is both more expensive and less convenient than numerous other unrestricted options.
I lost power a few years ago for five days. We all did in the area after a catastrophic wind storm; it was like a tornado just in one direction, you could literally hear it coming like a freight train. I refused to leave. First there was the issue of the pets, then the expense, then leaving the house unattended. Insurance adjusters are brought in when this type of catastrophic event happens and I wanted to ensure I was there when he/she showed up.
NOTE: This is NOT a political discussion. Nor is it a preparedness discussion. It's about decision making.
After watching the kerfuffle around Ted Cruz going to Cancun to escape the bad Texas weather, I got to thinking. With conditions so bad, why didn't more people choose to leave for a few days to get out of the cold?
In the past, one main reason to stay would have been because of having to work. However, with the pandemic, most people are working from home and could work from anywhere for a few days.
Property safety wouldn't be an issue because people routinely leave their homes unoccupied for a few days while they go on vacation. Worrying about frozen pipes wouldn't matter because that's an uncontrollable variable. The pipes would burst with or without you being home.
It has been such a tragedy. So, why didn't more people choose to temporarily relocate for a few days? Did they not think about it? Was it because they didn't have the money?
Not sure about you but most people can't just take a vacation on a whim.
We could have left, and we considered it. However, we have four dogs. So we couldn't fly anywhere.
We could have loaded them in the camper van and driven somewhere, but where? Living in San Antonio, my first thought was to head south towards the coast or the Valley, but those areas were forecast to be equally cold. The whole state was under a winter storm watch! There was nowhere to go within a 12-hour drive that would be any warmer. And what if the power was out in our destination? If I'm going to be cold and miserable, I'd rather be cold and miserable at my own house.
His wife. I kid you not, I watched the interview with him after he returned. He left her at home to man the fort on her own during the emergency. He returned home because she called him to report how bad the emergency really was, that she had no power or heat, the water pipes were seizing up and she feared for her safety and the structural safety of the house. I'm thinking she's not happy about any of it right now.
7. Staying behind due to a sense of responsibility to one's community and a desire to help out one's neighbors where one can.
Note: #7 is becoming less of a motivation for many people these days, and all too often not factored into one's decisions on how to act in a state of emergency.
Where do you get that?
It's true that we are seeing more and more news about people who feel little or no sense of responsibility and little desire to help one's neighbors.
But that doesn't mean there's more of them.
It means that the media is publicizing the few that they can find, more and more.
It's true that we are seeing more and more news about people who feel little or no sense of responsibility and little desire to help one's neighbors.
But that doesn't mean there's more of them.
It means that the media is publicizing the few that they can find, more and more.
One doesn't need to watch the news on tv. One need only look around (especially in some of the discussions taking place on some of these forums) to see that a growing number of people these days don't really give a lot of thought to those around them. We can certainly see this in how some people address others on these forums. Honestly, I've been involved in online groups since 1990 and I hadn't seen back then the level of disregard for others that I'm seeing these days. If an online forum is viewed as a microcosm, then what I've been seeing doesn't bode well for society at large.
Online evidence aside, I think that humanity does best when we cooperate with and care for each other. We've got to start somewhere so, rather than thinking of reasons and means to bug out of town when the going gets rough, perhaps we should be thinking of reasons to stay in order to help our neighbors. Else, there may not be anything worthwhile left to come back home to when the crisis passes.
His wife. I kid you not, I watched the interview with him after he returned. He left her at home to man the fort on her own during the emergency. He returned home because she called him to report how bad the emergency really was, that she had no power or heat, the water pipes were seizing up and she feared for her safety and the structural safety of the house. I'm thinking she's not happy about any of it right now.
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Not quite. Ted Cruz, his wife, Heidi, and their kids flew to Cancun together. He returned home the next morning when news of his trip became public, falsely claiming that was his plan all along. The only family member who remained behind in Houston was Snowflake the poodle.
Heidi and the kids returned from Cancun yesterday (2/20).
Heidi sent the messages about how the house was "FREEZING" to her friends before they left for Cancun. She was trying to round up friends to accompany them on the trip. Only $300/night at the Ritz Carlton Cancun!
But I agree she's probably not happy about any of it right now.
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I'm thinking she's not happy about any of it right now. 
