I have always wondered about people like this: this woman is a nurse

[Thtwudbeme]

Jennifer McDonald in Galveston planned to ride Rita out. She and her husband have enough food and water to last 10 days in their wooden house. If it gets really bad, the couple will take to the roof.

"If it goes, it goes," the 42-year-old nurse said of the house. "We're completely prepared."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050922/ap_on_re_us/rita

I don't know whether to admire them for being willing to die to see a storm...kinda like a low level Mt. Everest climber...or whether to be angry with them for their "stupidity."

I personally don't find a hurricane or tornado worth dying for---but, then again, I watched "Everest" at the Imax theatre and knew I would only see that mountain when I looked out the window of the airplane.

Stephanie

[acmejack]

1. They have no conception of what they are dealing with

I was once in a huge hurricane (actually a typhoon, if you want to quibble). The anemometer failed at 185 KNOTS & the storm totally trashed Nuclear hardened installation.

The most vivid recollection is of a 70ft steel flagpole which the storm bent parallel to the ground about 5 feet from the base. That is power!

[Thtwudbeme]

2. Surely, living on Galveston Island the couple has an idea

of how bad things can get there; hell, there's a MOVIE for folks with no imagination!

See what I mean? I just don't understand the motivation!

[NewJeffCT]

16. doomed to repeat history

at least Galveston has a warning this time around...

[ladylibertee]

3. I think they are stupid.There I said it.If you HAVE means and do

not leave, your an idiot.I don't care if you have a Phd or if you have "been" through a lot of other storms.Times have changed, the weather is more extreme possibly due to global warming so if you stay, and have means to get out, you are a stupid idiot.

[supernova]

4. Overconfidence

can get them killed in a storm this bad.

They have a wooden house? It won't be left standing. They should ask the people in Slidell. There's nothing but foundations left there.

[intheflow]

5. "If it goes... we're completely prepared."

I don't think she truly understands that if her house goes, she's probably dead. You can't be completely prepared in the path of a category 5 hurricane. I can understand wanting to protect your property, but geesh, Lady! Put down the crack pipe and get real!

[Skittles]

6. I truly dislike these kind of people

I mean the kind with the means to leave who just don't - because they certainly will expect OTHER PEOPLE to risk THEIR lives saving THEIR SORRY ASSES when things go badly - this is selfishness in its highest form

[CascadeTide]

7. I understand why people go through storms

I am a thrill seeker and have been through hurricanes, swam with sharks and all of that. I don't think I would stay on the coast through this one though because it's almost certain death. I'm not afraid of death but I'm not looking for it either. But, I can understand why someone may want to ride it out, if you lived through this one it would be quite a story...

[hedgehog]

8. Being a nurse has nothing to do with it.

Although some nurses think they control the universe.

[Obamarama]

9. I think the OP was implying that this person is obviously educated....

In other words, seemingly smart enough to figure out she and her husband should leave.

[Thtwudbeme]

11. Yes, thank you...that was it. And also...surely she has seen dead bodies?

I wonder if she has seen the horrible photos of the dead in NO? Those people didn't just "go to sleep" peacefully--

Surely a nurse understands traumatic death?

[hippywife]

15. Education

doesn't bestow one with common sense, tho.

[jonnyblitz]

34. no shit. i have known lots of idiots with college degrees. nt

[spuddonna]

38. As my Mama said,"You can be smart, and not have a lick of common sense"

I think that fits here nicely...

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

25. I'm an RN who has seen MSM identify anyone who works in the medical

field as a "nurse". This is especially true if they're a nurse aide, who typically receive 6 weeks training to take vital signs.

I've seen X ray techs, medcial assistants and receptionists given this label, as well.

Just saying, the term "nurse" is very loosely applied by the MSM. MKJ

[Thtwudbeme]

29. I was a paramedic; my expired liscense is so old it has mold on it!

I think the reason I specifically was horrified that a nurse would do this is because I remember my training (OK, I am not THAT old...let's just say I was working when the first mobile pulse oxemeters were placed on units in rural areas :) )....back to my training. I LOVED most of the nurses that helped me...they were my favorites; way more than the Dr.s...although there were a few Docs I loved....my utmost respect was for the nurses.

This has nothing to do with my post, but since you are a nurse, I have to tell you that my 4 favorite types of nurses were the burn unit nurses, the peds nurses, the OB-GYN, and naturally the ER nurses- worst, bitchiest ones for students: the CCU, and CCCU nurses. Hated them!

;)

Thanks for your input!

Stephanie

[calico1]

12. I agree.

Just because she is a nurse does not mean she is naturally gifted with more common sense than anyone else.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

20. Yeah, there is that "Nurse Ratchet" syndrome in some

And then they find out the patient is a lawyer ...............

[Binka]

10. Simple! She Wants To Be On TV And Get A Movie Deal

Sad thing is she will probably be dead. Fuckwittage.

[Ilsa]

13. She really doesn't understand that the water will wash her

home away. In 1900, the houses closest to the water broke apart in the tidal surge and those houses served as battering rams for home further in.

As much brains as it takes to be a nurse, this woman needs to get educated on Galveston history.

[jedr]

14. It reminds me of how people with limited skills;

Try something like climbing a mountain face and when they are stuck on a ledge for three days they call on the cell phone for a helicopter to rescue them, putting even more people at risk...It's for the common good, please evacuate.

[jody]

18. "how people with limited skills" like * invading Iraq? n/t

[RC]

17. A cleansing of the gene pool...

"If it gets really bad, the couple will take to the roof."

What roof?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

21. Social Darwinism at work

Everything about your post - including the picture in your signature line - made me laugh.

Thanks.

[wildhorses]

19. In the infamous words of James Bond

LIVE AND LET DIE

[charlie]

22. She has no idea what she's in for

I've been through a good number of hurricanes, cat 4 and lesser.

If it's a storm of decent strength the power goes out early. You're in a silent, darkened house with the keening roar of a monster on the other side of trembling, groaning walls. The heat is oppressive. Debris pounds your home with hammer-like bangs and there's the occasional startling BAM of especially large pieces. You try not to think about a chunk coming through a window.

This lasts for hours... unless it's a cat 5 and your vigil is over in minutes.

She really needs to skedaddle.

[mopaul]

23. I hope she's not forcing her pets to ride out the storm with her

seriously, she sounds like the type.

[expatriate]

24. There are always some who will do things like this

anytime there is a hurricane and an evacuation. The ones who throw hurricane parties and get good and drunk so they could never help themselves if things got really bad and they had to run for it. And then there's always those fatalist types who smoke three packs a day, never wear a seat belt and say "when it's your time, it's your time."

I've worked around the medical profession a lot in my life, and I can say that I've run into fatalism among nurses like none I've ever seen in other people. I don't know if people with that attitude are just drawn to nursing, or if nursing does something to them. Probably a combination of factors - but I have known more nurses who ignore or minimize symptoms of serious illness in themselves and sometimes in their family members than I have any other group of people of my acquaintance.

And I've known many nurses who were convinced they could deal with any situation. I guess if you're constantly dealing will sickness, injury, all the emotions that go with it, including grieving families, anxious patients - you get desensitized.

This isn't to denigrate nurses or nursing, and of course there are nurses out there with common sense, who do not adopt a "when it's your time, it's your time" attitude. It could even be that this woman and her husband are just fools, and her profession has nothing to do with it.

These people are making a mistake which will probably be their last - nurse or not. Maybe they'll wake up and leave in time.

[SheilaT]

26. Being a nurse has

nothing to do with her idiotic decision, even though she may think it gives her some kind of special knowledge that will enable her to ride out the storm.

Clearly she has no clue just how powerful this storm is. And possibly she has somehow not seen the destruction that happened all along the Gulf Coast, houses utterly swept away.

It is quite organized of her to have food and water for 10 days, but if they're swept away, it won't do them any good. Hopefully they've already notified next of kin and have their wills up-to-date. Of course, no one's going to get the house or the personal possessions currently inside.

[all.of.me]

27. if it goes, so do they.

i think she is stupid, not brave. i'm curious to see if she comes out on the other side of it in good enough shape to give us an eye witness account.

[newportdadde]

28. She is an idiot nuff said.

[highplainsdem]

30. They're predicting the storm surge will be well above the seawall

in Galveston, and the western end of the island doesn't even have a seawall. If that nurse and her husband stay, it's almost guaranteed that they'll die. The only real hope for Galveston at this point is for the storm to track much farther east than they're predicting. Otherwise, Rita will destroy Galveston.

I hope that nurse and her husband aren't also putting children and pets at risk by staying.

[hobbit709]

31. Definitely TSTL

TOO STUPID TO LIVE

[BiggJawn]

32. She got on Yahoo! News. Mission Accomplished....

It just amazes me what some people will do for their fucking "15 minutes"...

They're stupid. IF they survive, they'll either have the wind taken out of their sails and be taliking about how they're moving so far inland the only water they'll ever see comes out of the faucet, or they'll be crying about why the Coasties wouldn't come out and save their stupid asses at the height of the storm....

[prole_for_peace]

33. galveston only has 17 foot seawalls and as of now

i have heard that the surge might be over 40 feet.

these people just want to be nominated for a darwin award.

[triguy46]

35. Yep, that house made of straw is going to last...

Move to the roof? the roof will be the first to go. These people are idiots.

[Toots]

36. "take to the roof"... Roofs are usually the first to go in high winds

:shrug: With smarts like that I bet they voted for Bush*

[Javaman]

37. The woman I work with, her cousin is riding it out...

That kind of stupidity just blinds me, especially after Katrina.

Yes, people are that dumb.

Edit: she has the means to get out and my co worker offered her a place to stay. The cousin should then give her car to someone who can't leave.