A word about evacuations (Sorry, it's long)

[Island Blue]

We've heard a lot during the past week (mainly from Repukes) that the people of NOLA (and other hard hit areas) should have evacuated before Katrina made landfall. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I just wanted to weigh in with my two cents worth about evacuating for a hurricane because as they say, "been there, done that."

The main point I want to make is that it's not that simple a thing to do. Making a decsion to leave your home (weather it's actually yours or you rent) is EXTREMELY difficult. Logically, you know there is a storm heading for you that could hurt you. Emotionally however, you are leaving your home and all of your possessions. I'm not just talking about expensive material possessions like computers, furniture, TVs, stereos, etc., etc. - I'm talking about possessions like irreplaceable family photos, family heirlooms and yes, even your memories. It's a gut wrenching thing to have to decide.

Once you do decide to leave, that's not that easy either. If you are fortune enough to have transportation (which we know most of those stranded in NO were not) you still have to get from Point A to Point B. This means of course you have to have enough money to travel well out of the path of the storm, and enough money to stay at Point B once you get there. (Point B is rarely free.) You also have to hope that you've left in plenty of time because everyone else is leaving too, so basically you are traveling in a parking lot.

In 1999, my family chose to evacuate for Hurricane Floyd because the storm looked like it was going to be a bad one and that it was headed directly for us. The nearest hotel we could find was 5 HOURS inland! The storm ended up making a sudden, funny turn and made landfall sooner than expected. We (and hundreds of other folks) ended up driving in tropical-storm conditions well after we had cleared the coast. Flash floods began to happen, and some of the evacuees were swept up in the waters! It was crazy.

Once we finally reached our destination (safely) we watched helplessly as the NE part of the state was completely flooded. (The ironic part is where we evacuated from was for the most part, OK.) Because of all of the flooding, it took us five days after the storm to get back home. We were the lucky ones, many places in the region were washed away (including one entire small town). The fact that this happened was a total shock - NO ONE predicted the floods that would occur more than a 100 miles from the Atlantic coastline.

The moral of this very long story is evacuation isn't always the answer. Hurricanes are so unpredictable it's a crap shoot at best if you are doing the right thing, even if you have the means to do it. Evacuating an entire city would have been next to impossible (IMO).

What really matters is what happens AFTER the storm. There will inevitably be people left behind who either chose not to leave, or who simply had no way to leave. How are those folks cared for? How are the people who left yet still lost EVERYTHING cared for? So if a Freeper tries to hand you that line about "they should have evacuated" please tell them it's not that simple.

(Sorry this was so long - if you're still reading this, thanks!)

[TayTay]

1. Thank you for writing this.

It's so true. People are faced with life and death decisions and they do the best they can. If they have the means, they leave. If not, what the hell can they do but ride it out.

And long, honey, I sigh longer than this in print. (I'm working on my brevity skills.)