how many of you (like me) think you might have been 1 who couldn't leave

[bobbieinok]

I have rheumatoid arthritis.......I live alone and have a car and a few caring neighbors, family in same town......BUT if battery is dying, gas is low, disaster happens quickly.....I don't think I'd be 1st on list for neighbors or family who have their own immediate ones to take care of

it's scary to think of; 3 years ago I didn't have this, could walk/run if necessary

and then there's the medication; I also have pernicious anemia and without B-12 shots I eventually die........up until 1930s, I think, pernicious anemia was an automatic death sentence

I know my physical situation is not nearly as bad as the situation for quite a few on DU.........it gives me a different perspective on disasters and on-going dislocations than I had when younger and in good health

[niyad]

1. I wouldn't leave unless I could take my animals with me, at least. but,

I do have friends who are very bad off physically, and I wouldn't think about leaving them behind, either.

[Erika]

3. agreed

The animals and the elderly have their needs and we feel a Christian need to help them. Many of us would stay in hopes of helping them.

But we must face our govt doesn't share the same attitude. I am not only heart broken but I am also furious.

[Erika]

2. The expectation is that the "Govt" would make the needy priorities

and you would be deemed a responsible person if you made that assumption.

You pay into the federal programs all you life and have the right to think your taxes would bail you out. The feds dropped the ball big time.

[RagAss]

4. I'm a Florida boy.......

We had 2 of the 4 in our area last year.... dropped the wife and kids off at the local High School shelter(my neighbors did the same)..sat in my neighbor's garage since he has a cement block house....played cards and drank beer....we will never leave our homes....can't explain it....you just can't explain it to anyone....

[Spike from MN]

22. Well, I'm in MN so I really haven't been through anything

even remotely close to what you ahve. Still, I'd probably do the same as you did for a number of reasons. First off, I don't like anyone telling me what I have to do. This is especially true where the government is concerned because I have absolutely ZERO trust in them. Secondly, I'd stay for the friggin' challenge. Yeah, that's a completely idiotic reason but goddamn, if I'm going to lose my house, I want to see what the hell caused it. Thirdly, and this isn't all that far removed from the second reason, you want to protect your property. While obviously property doesn't mean a whole lot if you die trying to save it, that really doesn't enter into your thought processes all that much because if you're THERE, you think you can do whatever is needed to save your property. If you're not there, anything can happen. And in your case, there would be a fourth reason. The neighbor has a cement block house, cards, AND beer? Oh man, count me in. ;)

But you and your neighbor did the right thing by dropping off the wives and kids first. I fly solo so I have none of those concerns which is probably another big reason I'd choose to stick it out.

[RoyGBiv]

5. On May 3rd ...

You know what that date means, I'm sure, but to spell it out, when the May 3rd tornado was heading for OKC, I watched as it seemingly targeted my mothers home. I watched the storm for over an hour, which is more warning than anyone ever normally gets with a tornado, but which is also an indication of just how bad it is going to be. The weak ones don't last that long.

I called my mother about 30 minutes before it hit. She was sitting in her living room watching as it approached. "Why are you still there?" I asked, incredulous.

"I have nowhere to go and no way to get there," she answered before continuing. "My legs have been acting up all week, and I can't walk on them for more than a few steps before I collapse. I don't think I can leave the house. I'm safer in here than lying out in the middle of the street unable to move." Almost as important, she couldn't think of leaving her two best friends, Sunshine and Oreo, the feline owners of the house.

She was lucky. I had also called an uncle who managed to get over to her house and get her out before it came through. But, if they'd had to leave the entire state, I'm not sure the trip would have been possible for her. She has a degenerative joint disease that makes traveling sometimes so painful she'd rather be dead. The pain will literally make her pass out.

I don't know about myself, but if I couldn't have gotten to her and talked her into enduring the pain of the trip, my mother would have been one of those who didn't leave, and she'd be dead now.

I think about that every waking moment.

[catnhatnh]

6. Well...I would have stayed.....

...not because it is medically neccesary, but I have weathered smaller storms within sight of the Atlantic.I am permanently disabled by a back injury but this is pure New England cussedness...I have a car and can drive...Having worked the fishing boats through several tough winters I guess it just seems unbelievable the ocean would come to get me at home....Have taken a couple of 3-4 ft of water while sitting out one in a relatives house...Bottom of driveway was 10 ft plus at the worst....

[ElsewheresDaughter]

7. if my pets couldn't go I stay

[Genki]

14. Yes, same here

Love me, love my dog.

[havocmom]

17. Me too. Am not young. Done my part. The dog is there for me, always.

I owe him no less.

[lindisfarne]

8. If I had lived in NO, I doubt I would have had a car; I don't now.

I would have been dependent on friends to get me out. And I wouldn't have gone without my cat, unless I would have been in a situation such as needing to carry children, and even then, I probably would have zipped my cat into my backpack and worn it, keeping my arms free for children, and let my cat be unhappy about his situation.
Edit: Knowing me, though, I would have made plans to leave on Saturday,taking city buses to the edge of the city if necessary, as soon as the hurricane was shown to be on a path for NO. I don't screw around with stuff like that. I certainly won't screw around in the future.

[stillcool]

9. no go...

nowadays i don't have that problem....just snow...but i was in West Palm for Andrew and didn't budge. Not only because of money, and pets which were both issues...but it is such a frequent occurence when the hype is not realized. And, with my distrust of all things government, i doubt i will be heeding to many warnings in the future.

[undergroundpanther]

10. I wouldn't have gotten out

If it was me alone,I wouldn't have gotten out if my freinds had no vehicles.
However I got good freinds and the vehicles I know would have been crammed,with as many people and animals we could humanly stuff in to them and stuff in the trunk ,and strap to the roof...

[SheilaT]

11. I have a car and I have

some money in the bank and so I probably would have left.

But I would never had thought I was leaving forever.

But your important point is that you live alone and have physical/medical limitations which make getting out difficult at best. Perhaps what each of us need is some kind of buddy system, or calling tree to make sure everyone gets out in something like this in the future. A lot depends on the lead time for evacuation.

[TexanDem]

12. I would have perished

I can't hardly walk from the parking lot into Walmart! My heart races if I exert too much, and I almost pass out if I get too hot. I would not have made it, for sure! I have 4 cats, three I've had for 12 years! I'm really stressing over what I would do with them. I have one carrier. Maybe I should get 3 more. I live in a mobile home and have a car, and I can evacuate if need be, but I wouldn't have been able to survive what they did. I would have had a stroke or something early on. And quite frankly, I think I would prefer a big beam fall and knock me in the head! I just can't imagine.

[niyad]

13. the two americas--look at difference between cuba and us

The Two Americas
by Marjorie Cohn

Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died.

What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret? According to Dr. Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico, and specialist in Latin America, "the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go."

"Cuba's leaders go on TV and take charge," said Valdes. Contrast this with George W. Bush's reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bush was playing golf. He waited three days to make a TV appearance and five days before visiting the disaster site. In a scathing editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said, "nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

"Merely sticking people in a stadium is unthinkable" in Cuba, Valdes said. "Shelters all have medical personnel, from the neighborhood. They have family doctors in Cuba, who evacuate together with the neighborhood, and already know, for example, who needs insulin."

They also evacuate animals and veterinarians, TV sets and refrigerators, "so that people aren't reluctant to leave because people might steal their stuff," Valdes observed.

. . . . . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0904-29.htm

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

15. Evacuating refrigerators?

I'm sure there's a point to that. Somewhere. :freak:

[izzie]

16. We always stayed in the storms in Maine and once------

I recall as a small child every one moving into our house.We lived on the water front. I also stayed along for about a week in that bad ice storm and had no lights or phone but I did have a wood stove and animals. At my age now I think it would be even harder to leave.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

18. As I told a friend the other day...

I have a scooter, three cats, a maxed out credit card, and $20 bucks in the bank -- I'm not going anywhere!

[OhNoTheyDidNot]

19. Randi Rhodes on Air America rode out Andrew and she has no medica

condition ... she says its very normal for people to not want to leave their homes and yada yada

[OhNoTheyDidNot]

20. Bobbienok -- luv u, stay strong most likely I'll be the next victim,,,

(CA) I'm expecting it - don't u worry - u r fine

[newyawker99]

23. Hi OhNoTheyDIdNot!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[GreenPartyVoter]

21. I chose to stick it out during ten days of an ice storm.. no heat, power,

running water... and I was sick with influenza and 8 mos preggers.

Stayed mainly because we didn't want to leave the cats and because every night we thought "Tomorrow they'll get the power back on, for sure."

[tjdee]

24. Do you mean before or after the storm, because you *should* be one to leav

e after.

If you were still there after Katrina, with no power, etc.... how would you get a refill on your medicine? Where would you get clean water from?

Before the storm, obviously, there should be some kind of system in place to get *everyone* out if they would like to go.

[CascadeTide]

25. There are times I wouldn't be able to leave

Like yesterday I had $30 in my bank account. Got a check in yesterday afternoon so I could have left today but couldn't have yesterday.

I probably would have stayed anyway because of the chance to document an event like that. I have an odd sense of adventure and I don't have family that depends on me so I would take a chance :P

That is of course assuming I could somewhat assure my safety like if I had lived in the French Quarter or somewhere else on high ground. I would not have stayed somewhere that was likely to be underwater.

[mandyky]

26. My family of 3 and 5 plus cats wouldn't have been able

to leave. We live on $1000 a month and have no car.