Hurricanes

So, I just posted about Hurricane Ike's remnants reaching Louisville, and I wanted to post a quick follow-up with some thoughts about something that's bothering me... Places like Galveston, TX were given an "Evacuate or die" notice as the hurricane approached. However, half the city stayed behind to ride out the storm along with thousands of other people up and down the Texas coast. The evacuation notices were mandatory. The people knew they were taking their lives into their own hands. And almost immediately the news started talking about the massive search and rescue effort that was being gathered for deployment.

Some people chose to stay behind, and now that they're stranded and without food, water, or electricity (surprise surprise), thousands of people getting paid tax dollars and using tax dollars to operate rescue equipment have to risk their lives to go save these people. I'm somewhat of the opinion that these folks should be fine to fend for themselves for a while. Maybe some had legitimate reasons they couldn't get out... but still... the evacuation notice was mandatory. Usually if you disobey a rule, you suffer the consequences. As one of the largest hurricanes in the state's history approaches, you have a pretty good idea of what the consequences will be.

What do other people think? Is it too hard on the folks? Or should they be more responsible citizens? I understand the sentiment that we have to stick together and help our fellow Americans out of dangerous situations... but they blatantly disregarded their own safety and now are putting the rescuers themselves at risk. I have to hope the news people focus on just the few disgruntled evacuees when they do their interviews. Otherwise I'd say the folks in the emergency shelters, there because they were plucked out of flood waters, would have some gall to complain about the treatment they're being given after ignoring... (once again)... a mandatory evacuation notice.

Thoughts?

Well, Hurricane Ike stretched all the way up the U.S. over the weekend... quite impressive for a storm that started in the Atlantic Ocean and tore through the Caribbean. This resulted in a fair amount of wind here in Louisville, with gusts up to 75 MPH that brought a lot of damage to the city. Power is out for 200,000+ people as they slowly repair downed trees and such. Not a huge deal, but it does make it a little trickier to get online.

We did get power restored in the office, though, so I'll be taking advantage of the fridge to store some perishables. The laptop doesn't mind not having power at home, so I can still get a bit of work done on the Drupal 6 version of Ubercart... it just makes it a little harder to communicate with the community and clients.

(No major damage to our house... hardly any minor damage. Maybe a few leaves blew down from our trees and our tomatoes are a little worse for the wear, but all the big trees that fell were in the park or on someone else's roof. A great big thanks for natural gas which still heats my water and my food even without power! I've heard estimates for full power restoration of up to 2 weeks, so I'm hoping we're on the shorter end of the spectrum...)