Re: South Florida - life with hurricanes
I understand exactly what you're saying. We've lived in South Texas for about 33 years and we always board up and travel North whenever a hurricane, Level 3 or higher, looks like it's heading our way. We never know whether our home will be there when we return. Each time we evacuate, our drive takes DOUBLE the time it would normally take. It's not fun--in fact it's a pain--but we accept it as part of life and we just do it.
I guess some of the people in New Orleans couldn't drive out. I just find it so hard to believe that they have lived on the Gulf Coast for so long, in a hurricane zone, and never thought or planned ahead what they would do when a storm hit! I mean, there's SOME kind of planning the residents could have done. Perhaps they could have made arrangements with neighbors or relatives to carpool, or maybe the population of a parish could have organized an emergency evacuation plan that would involve having their school buses pick everyone up. There are a lot of scenarios. You HAVE to have a plan.
We don't have a lot of different routes out of our area (Corpus Christi), so we can't wait for someone to MAKE us leave. We have to plan when we're going to leave all by ourselves. Admittedly, it's a HUGE temptation to wait until the last minute to see whether the storm is going to hit us or not--and we've waited almost too late a couple of times--but that is no one's fault but ours.
Bottom line: The people in this disaster area are not stupid, but maybe they're uninformed. Even though they've seen this type of disaster happen all along the Gulf to other people, they apparently need more education about it.
If they decided to stay during Katrina, it was a decision they made on their own--for whatever reason. I hope it teaches all of us not to take chances with our lives.
I know my "diatribe" doesn't take into consideration the people who are hospitalized or incapacitated, but I don't know what the answer to that is...I suppose the answer to that lies with the state and local governments.
as part of life and we just do it. I guess some of the people in New Orleans couldn't drive out. I just find it so hard to believe that they have lived on the Gulf Coast for so long, in a hurricane zone, and never thought or planned ahead what they would do when a storm hit! I mean, there's SOME kind of planning the residents could have done. ...........Bottom line: The people in this disaster area are not stupid, but maybe they're uninformed. Even though they've seen this type of disaster happen all along the Gulf to other people, they apparently need more education about it.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
It was about education.
I belive the levies gave the New Orleans low-income, poorly educated residents a false sense of security. The Governor and the Mayor failed them in regards to educating them otherwise.
I spit out a lot of facts about how the New Orleans levy system was predicted to fare in different Category hurricanes in my Post 1 but I did not know any of that a week and a half ago. I had to do a lot of Googling to research that and your average low-income resident is not going to be doing that.
The average low-income resident will takes his cues from Big Brother and Mayor Big Brother and Governor Big Brother had their heads so far up their rectums that they even had to have George Bush in Washington, DC give the evacuation request.
It was Bush that asked the Gov and Mayor to order a mandatory evacuation, NOT their idea at all.
See my last Post 17 about Islamorada.
If I were Governor of Florida, I would know enough about my own State not to have to have the President of the United States call me up to say, "Ummmmm.....Governor Polybius, considering that there is a Category 5 Hurrican heading straight for the Florida Keys, don't you think you need to order a Manadatory Evacuation of the Keys?".
If I were the Mayor of Islamorada, I would have a plan so that, if a hurricane were coming in 48 hours, the low-income residents who had no cars would riding out of the Florida Keys on Islamorada school buses right in front of my own car.
I would not be telling my low-income Islamorada residents from a TV studio in hurricane-safe Miami, "Well, now that you are stuck in Islamorada, why don't you all go to the City Hall Building. It's right next to the 1935 Hurricane Disaster Memorial."