Posted on 08/14/2004 1:42:49 AM PDT by kattracks
The evac orders are plain as day. Everyone in mobile homes and RVs was told to leave 24 hours before hand.
The ENTIRE population of Port Charlotte wasn't ordered to evac; most of the area was "strongly urged" to evacuate closer to the storm.
However, I suspect the overwhelming majority of deaths will be from mobile homes.
I think it is the opposite. As someone accused me of doing, they believed the media reports that this was not going to hit them. Even up to the moment this thing changed course, it was being reported that it would hit Tampa.
Find that information. I am looking for it everywhere. I will show you the messages from yesterday that people were not given evacuation orders until just before this thing hit.
The area hit was under a hurricane warning for 24 hours and a hurricane watch for 36 hours, and neither was ever lifted.
The intention of NHC is everyone in a watch or warning preapare as if they will be hit directly by a hurricane, and those areas are selected based on NHC KNOWING how inaccurate they have been on track in the past. However, the interpretation of that by the media and emergency management is the problem.
"During the roar of most of the storm, the walls on the house looked as though they were breathing--pulsating in and out."
That is exactly the phenomenon being described by musicman yesterday afternoon. Praying for him and his family and all the Floridians in the path of Charley.
ummm...post 48 in this thread.
NOBODY is ever going to get evac orders 3 days before a cane or something. 24 hours is typical, and is long enough to leave or go to a nearby shelter.
Keep in mind that we're creating a culture devoid of personal responsibilty, and people are looking to blame everyone but themselves.
I do recall a local meteorologist on early yesterday talking about how they had the warnings, but when the media and storm tracks predicted the path much further north, the evacuations were not pursued.
You cannot fault these people for not leaving when all the "talking" heads were telling them they were safe. Would I have left, yeah. But we aren't everyone.
Read the very next sentence:
"Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center have moved the landfall of Hurricane Charley slightly north of Tampa"
Thaks for updates. Without cable/dish my TV has cartoons.
And does that rescind the evacuations? Nope.
Dammit. Was it in the triler park that the greatest ddamage and deaths occured? I suspect so.
You are being an egotistical jerk. These people have tragically lost their lives. Families are suffering. Get down off of your horse for 2 seconds, geez.
They should have left, yes. But they didn't. Try supporting the loved ones for now.
Have been listening to the news and weather all night waiting to hear from my son, brother, uncles and their families.
Have not heard any report about "stacks of bodies", perhaps you confused hurricane news with Iraqi news?
The problem is the media primarily. Actually local EODs are a problem as well, really. The problem isn't NHC.
But at root is a failure of people who live in a dangerous area to educate themselves on what NHC is very open about regarding the imprecision of forecasting.
Port Charlotte was under a hurricane warning. That was never rescinded. The intention of NHC is everone under such a warning assume they get a direct hit, and that intensity of storms cannot be predicted.
Yes, it is a great tragedy.
No flames from me. I spoke with my aunt in Pinellas Park yesterday. It was her 80th birthday & the 10th anniversary of the death of her husband. Her health had been failing. I could help but think in the conversaton with her that she looked at this as an "easy" death if it were in cards. She is agnostic, and so would not look at God's providence or will.
I agree that these people probably sat in their houses because the media kept pushing the point that this hurricane was going much further north. If anyone is to fault in this, it would be the media for not persisting in getting people out of the area.
I'd rather be an egotistical jerk than swallow a story line the media is pushing hook, line, and sinker, esp. when the uneducation of the media is one of the primary causes of the original problem.
"Remember, those are the same folks that had trouble figuring out how to successfully mark a ballot...could that be part of the explanation?"
That's cold, many people here did evacuate in the areas that were first predicted to be hit, then they went to somewhere they thought would be safe and ended up in the middle of it after all. These things are very hard to predict- they skip all over the place. Sometimes they pass your area and then they back up and go over where you thought they would miss.
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