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Maybe they have no family to go to and don’t have money to evacuate. People who live in the path of hurricanes understand that they’re unpredictable. They could be heading your way and then at the last minute turn or weaken to the point that no evacuation was needed. Some people just don’t have the means to evacuate. Why is this so hard to understand?
I agree this is a problem for some people. But aren't there emergency shelters set up for people who have nowhere to evacuate to? Are there enough of them to accommodate the need?
As a hiker I remember a article in a magazine called Backpacker asking the same question. If you need to be rescued from breaking your leg, bit by a snake, etc. We all pay taxes too have someone to come up us if we get over our heads or stuck somewhere where the weather has turned bad. Now if you need a helicopter lift or something out of the norm, I would think that’s a different story.
They discovered during Katrina many did not have the resources to evacuate. That's why that stadium was filled with people.
A storm coming toward Houston had mandatory evacuation from low areas. Many people left, including those on high ground. Each person was driving one of the 4 family cars. They sat on the freeway for days. Gas stations ran out of gasoline. The supply trucks couldn't replenish the stations due to gridlock. It took my neighbor 27 hours to go 75 miles. They finally turned around and came home. There was totally no need for them to leave in the first place. But the cars were bumper to bumper from Houston to Dallas.
It doesn't help when Gov. McMaster issues a mandatory evacuation early for South Carolina and then the next day, retracts it for part of the coast. Some of those evacuees were going to Columbia which for a while looked to be preparing to get hit harder than the South Carolina coast.
Also, if I was ordered to leave, I wouldn't be able to without help. I have no reliable wheels and no money to get a hotel room somewhere for days on end
Creating laws that penalize people for using emergency services, even when they do stupid things, has the unintended consequence of causing people who truly need help - often at no fault of their own - to not call because they are afraid they will be penalized or shamed for doing so. I am a former EMT and countless times heard people tell me they delayed calling for help because they were afraid they didn’t really need it or would get charged for it (our services were free) or were embarrassed. Sometimes people die because of this.
Here in Arizona there is such a law (the Stupid Motorist Law) that allows a person who drives around barricades into a flooded roadway to be charged up to $2000 for the cost of his rescue. Although it’s popular, it has almost never been used and some larger agencies have publicly stated they will not charge people. There’s been some discussion recently about creating a ‘Stupid Hiker Law’ with the same premise, to charge hikers who need rescuing due to heat related emergencies. The rescue services are opposed to this. No reasonable human being wants to see someone die as a result of their own stupidity.
I served in an area that has frequent flooding issues (not in AZ) and it was a regular occurrence that people needed to be rescued because they refused to leave their homes. It’s frustrating, but it’s a fact of human nature that some people do this. And we go get them every time. It’s part of the job.
Families of first responders often stay put because they don't want to(or can't) evacuate without their spouse. Same goes for people that have to stay to run shelters and work at hospitals. Shelters are often run by local government employees that are forced to work shelter duty or get fired. Often their spouse and family won't leave town alone. Ditto for family of police, firefighters, utility employees, local media and road workers.
The Coast Guard are out there anyway and it provides needed practice for them to do rescue. The vast majority of their work involves recreational boaters...so "conservatives" might say "let 'em die".
But this is yet another question (many here similar) of whether we are a country....or just whether we are a profit seeking corporation. It appears, to many, the later is the ideal.
Last edited by sware2cod; 09-16-2018 at 10:21 AM..
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