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Pets. It's always the reason I usually have not evacuated, and I'm on the Texas Gulf Coast. Shelters don't accept pets, many hotels don't accept them, and even the hotels that do accept them are often prohibitively expensive. Who can afford $130 or $150/night to stay at a hotel when we may be there for more than a week? What happens after our money runs out? Where do we go then?
You. Are. Wrong.
Some shelters--not all----DO TAKE PETS
But they are required to be in crates most of the time and to be current on shots--and not all owners have crates (especially for large dogs) or believe in vaccinations...
Pets are shelters separately from their owners except for walking/feeding and visiting from time to time...they aren't allowed free access and to keep them with owners all the time
For the safety of other pets and humans in the shelters...
Not all pets are well-behaved --- not all people either for that matter...
We were in TX when the hurricane hit FL last year but we loaned someone a crate for her dog so they could go to a shelter during the storm...she picked it up at our house because our daughter lives next door to our FL house and they only went inland to friends' house right before storm hit...
But we can say that with any rescue or accident help. People drive on the roads and take risks, they go in planes and take a risk, they climb mountains, they do stupid things that start fires and endanger people, hike in remote areas, drive in blizzards, swim in water where there is a bad undertow, etc. People make bad choices and sometimes mistakes every single day...and put other lives at risk because of it.
For those who think all the people in flood prone areas are wealthy think again. Many of the southern coastal areas or even areas at sea level away from the actual coast are prone to flooding in storms. Most of those people are not wealthy....unlike the Sandy Hook people where real estate values are much higher. I don't have as much of a problem helping people but replacing and helping with a home especially if it is a second home or a vacation home really ticks me off.
Sometimes people don'''t have the money to move to hotel or travel to friends/relatives.
Sometimes people are afraid of being looted by gangs that do come into danger areas to poach/steal what they can salvage
Sometimes people worry about taking their pets even though shelters in many areas do take pets if you follow the rules
Sometimes people just think they are special
Life has risk from the moment of conception until the last instant you breath--
This is about RECOGNIZEABLE risk...
And there is a certain bravado that comes from standing up to a hurricane that seems to affect many people who want to live the "free life"...
I see it along the coast pretty often...
You probably didn't see the Facebook video of the man and woman and their two dogs sheltering in his pickup truck after their house in Rockport area of TX was flooded and had roof lifted...
They managed to use the truck like an escape chamber but they were screaming for people to come rescue them when they were in that dangerous situation after ignoring ALL the evac orders...
To me there is rarely much that people can do to protect themselves from natural events like tornados that often strike at night when people asleep with little advance warning
But often the path of a hurricane is predictable for days--even if the strike zone might not be known until a few hours before landfall...
Last year in FL, we had our daughter and her family who were planning to stay at home because the hurricane was SUPPOSED to strike Miami area and they through they were OK on the Sarasota side...
Then the hurricane went further south and came north into Naples area
That made for a much more iffy situation if it came as far north as Tampa before making landfall
By the time they realized they likely were more endangered, they would have had to go as far north as GA to get a hotel room...
They went a few miles inland to friends who had a newer, code-friendly house at higher ground elevation...
Our houses are just couple of miles inland from the Gulf...not in normal flood plain but with excessive rain and big storm surge--any place can flood...
And our neighborhood is south of national park which has a river and wetlands--
So they weren't entirely sure how much water might be coming from that area either...
Luckily they were fine at their friends--lost power for probably a day and there were no trees that hit the friends' house...although there was huge amount of plant debris to be dealt with afterwards up and down the state...
We were also lucky that there was no high water in our street--the palm that fell went into the yard vs our roof and our two houses apparently never really lost power--unlike some in our neighborhood that were w/o power for more than a week...
We were VERY LUCKY that the hurricane's path basically followed I-75 and stayed EAST of our location because that meant we were on the weaker side for the rotating wind bands and the storm surge...
If it had followed the coast to Tampa, the houses could have been much more damaged because they would have been on the wrong side of the eye wall...
The problem is that all of this construction is not really for what the new type of hurricanes are
Not ready for the storm surges, for the infrastructure failure, for the increased strength and just occurances that are going to be more numerous and destructive...
Deny climate change's effects all you want
You can see it on the news right not...
They did back in 1985 with Elena. I was on Tampabay then. I just snuck back in the hood later on. Only got gust to 55mph with that storm. It sat offshore 90 miles for 2 days. When i went 80 miles offshore a week later the grouper- snapper fishing was so unreal it was like going back to the 1940's the fish were so thick we got 5000lbs in a day. The rough weather stacked all the fish up on the high peaks. It was unreal for 2 months after. No wonder there are no grouper left.
I was in Punta Gorda for Elena. I live in NJ, but we were visiting my mother-in-law. It was a weird storm. Just sat offshore, like you said, and the sky was gray and there was this constant wind.
Then we woke up in the morning and the river behind my MIL's house was in the backyard, so we went inland a few miles away to my SIL's house. Got there and my MIL realized she had forgotten her cockatiel. She'd taken his cage off the stand and set him on the dining room table.
My husband and I drove back to rescue Pretty Boy, and by then we had to park on the other side of the hospital across the street and wade through the parking lot to the house. The water was knee-deep and we were looking out for gators. But we got the bird and brought him to safety. Spent the rest of our vacation tearing up carpets in my MIL's house.
Flew back up north, and three weeks later hurricane Gloria came roaring through up there. I worked in the World Trade Center, and it was the only time I remember them closing the buildings due to the high winds.
Pets. It's always the reason I usually have not evacuated, and I'm on the Texas Gulf Coast. Shelters don't accept pets, many hotels don't accept them, and even the hotels that do accept them are often prohibitively expensive. Who can afford $130 or $150/night to stay at a hotel when we may be there for more than a week? What happens after our money runs out? Where do we go then?
In the bayshore towns that were devastated here in NJ after Sandy, there were people sleeping on the beaches for a long time afterward. That's one answer.
But we can say that with any rescue or accident help. People drive on the roads and take risks, they go in planes and take a risk, they climb mountains, they do stupid things that start fires and endanger people, hike in remote areas, drive in blizzards, swim in water where there is a bad undertow, etc. People make bad choices and sometimes mistakes every single day...and put other lives at risk because of it.
For those who think all the people in flood prone areas are wealthy think again. Many of the southern coastal areas or even areas at sea level away from the actual coast are prone to flooding in storms. Most of those people are not wealthy....unlike the Sandy Hook people where real estate values are much higher. I don't have as much of a problem helping people but replacing and helping with a home especially if it is a second home or a vacation home really ticks me off.
Not sure which "Sandy Hook" people you are referring to, but the one here in NJ has no residents except perhaps for employees of the park.
Re the bolded, unfortunately, some of that attitude was directed toward people whose homes were destroyed by the Sandy "Superstorm" in 2012. Some people saw only expensive vacation homes destroyed and didn't have much sympathy, but there were thousands of people who were not wealthy whose houses were destroyed. It is almost six years later, and some of those people's homes still have not been rebuilt.
This is from the last anniversary. I expect that another article will appear this year.
It
But don't people have common sense. 130 mph winds isn't " drama".
Its something that can kill you.
I understand the tv over the top thing but serioisly people can't process information and figure out what's serious and what is junk
Well this is one of the reasons, it wasn't and isn't 130MPH winds. The most recorded was a gust at 105. I would have left if my home was on low ground though, that should be a no brainer.
First let me say, I live in a relatively "safe" weather area, while we occasionally get a nor'easter, I haven't lived through hurricanes (we did have sandy) wild fires or any other natural disaster. So I totally don't know what's involved with storm preparation.
Anyway I'm looking at the news and people along the coast of NC and SC have been told to evacuate and there are always those who want to "ride it out". Seriously? I can imagine it's a pain to have to pick up and leave and the stress must be high but I can't imagine thinking you'd win a battle with mother nature. Isn't a Category 4 hurricane serious enough to leave?
I saw the same thing in California with the wild fires. You're looking at fire out your kitchen window and you want to stay?
Why?
I lived on the Mississippi coast during Katrina and I did evacuate. After we returned to the mess and tried to resume life, the local newspaper ran a little story every day about some one who died during the storm. Usually the relatives were interviewed and one of the major reasons a lot of folks stayed was, they couldn’t take their dog with them. Most shelters did not take pets. I believe the laws have now been changed and shelters must accept pets.
Speaking for myself, I would never evacuate to a shelter. I would go to a motel, sleep in the car or on the ground.
No, many are not. They come in, see the view, buy the house and then pitch a fit when an abnormally high tide floods them, when gale force plus winds tear the siding off their house, when watermen pull the crabpots offshore, etc.
You would not believe the people who are required to buy flood insurance, have a Flood Prone Area sign in front of their houses and who are surprised, shocked and dismayed when they do flood. They then demand the local government "do something".
I don't think the first part of that is true. Most people in my area that buy homes have been vacationing in the same shore town sometimes for multi-generations and then decide to buy. They've seen the flooding, because it floods even in smaller storms, if it rains during high tide that could be all it takes. Most are from Pa or other relatively close places, the same news stations cover the weather at the shore. So they know, but people who buy in our shore towns do so because they have awesome memories of vacationing here since they were kids and they love it here and are willing to take the chance.
Even if they didn't know, they'd know before buying because the flood insurance requirement would be disclosed long before closing, and it's quite expensive. I live in an area now that hasn't flooded ever, yet I pay $200 a month for flood insurance, so people on the ocean or bay are probably paying closer to $1000 a month or more.
I just don't get the judgement of people wanting to live near the water. There may be an argument to be made that some areas shouldn't have been built up so close to the water, but blame the corrupt officials on Zoning boards and the developers, not the people who want to live there.
It's only recently that there have been this many severe storms, in any case. Before Sandy, our town hadn't really had any major storm damage since the early 60's.
But that is the misconception
Most of the people who do that really ARN'T prepared to deal with the worst effects of a dangerous storm or its aftermath.
News report this AM that people who stayed in some evac area were now calling for water rescue and the responders can't/won't get to them...because the winds are too strong...
Exactly what those people were warned would happen--and they didn't pay attention...
I saw it in Houston's flooding last year...I have seen it in every hurricane that has been televised since I was old enough to watch--and that covers about 65 yrs of watching...
People don't leave because they have "reasons" they feel cancel out the danger of a POSSIBLE threat to their lives....
Many times they role the dice and get lucky...
But there are enough people who refuse to leave and wind up in terrible danger that they put multiple other people's lives in harm's way as well...
In Houston's flooding, it was the average person with a Jon boat or water ski who made all the difference in saving people and their pets...
The first responders--because the areas affected were so large and w/o communication access -- were trying but often unable to do everything that needed to be done...
There were people who came in from other states and far parts of Texas to aid in recovery
And believe me there are STILL people whose houses and personal lives have not been put to right...
Good thing they stayed!
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