Disaster Discussion

[mon]

This is a wierd sorta topic.Very hard call. At the end of the day, everyone will have to take responsibility for the choices they make. We all do. Dead or alive for not evacuating, rescue workers risking their lives to help the folks and stranded animals. Face it, not a very safe place to live but i'm not sure if I was born there it would be easy to go. Not sayin' I'm just sayin'.

[mon]

My cousin is a fire chief in Richmond, ready to risk his life for others everyday. Hate to see him lose his life cuz someone was too silly to go to safety when they had good time and warning to do so.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Happens here in SoCal all the time. Wild fires and people don't want to leave. I understand how they feel but agree -- if they have to be rescued - it should be their expense.

[mon]

I guess folks who don't leave might be financially incapable or think they are. How does one fine someone with no loot

[mon]

You could fine them, yes indeed. No one would recieve nary a cent.

[mon]

Just sounds like a lotta paperwork and wasted energy to me.People do whatever they want it seems

[Grace]

I think in some situations, the authorities will spell it out - if you don't leave when they tell you to, you are on your own. As someone previously said, why should emergency personnel be expected to risk their lives to save someone stupid?

There was some unexpected, very fast rising flooding in Louisiana yesterday, and people had to leave with what they on at the time. No time to pack anything. Saw some film on the news this evening where some of the residents went back to get their pets - the water had started to recede so it was safer. Anyway, this one guy had several dogs and 23 cats - everyone of them survived by going to the 2nd floor. They were all rescued without incident

[catland]

If I were to choose to stay behind after a mandatory evacuation, then I would consider the rescuers to be off the hook as far as trying to save me at the risk of their own safety.

I don't plan to be rescued. I'd rather be a rescuer than a rescuee.

I took a FEMA class the fall after Hurricane Katrina and learned some of the basic skills to learn how to help at the citizen level. My husband and I have discussed where we would go in case of an emergency since I work on the other side of the river and am 20+ miles from home. We don't really get disasters here in Oregon, but the one concern is that we're overdue for a major earthquake which of course would totally mess up the freeways, bridges, etc.

[emily_the_spoiled]

The one good thing that came out of Katrina was that the Federal government pass the PETS Act. This basically says that if there is a human shelter opened there MUST be a place for pets to be placed also. In Florida many of the shelters will actually allow you to take your pet to the human shelter. In Maryland, they don't but we open shelters within a reasonable distance from the human shelter so that people can take care of their pets.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stor...ina/57454202/1

[Lady's Human]

I guess folks who don't leave might be financially incapable or think they are. How does one fine someone with no loot

In a mandatory evac, the Guard normally has cargo truck available to move those with no means of egress.

Comfortable? Hack no. However, a bumpy ride vs. drowning, I'll take getting knocked around a bit by bumpy roads.

[smokey the elder]

With the shift to allowing pets in shelters, it becomes a little more clear, IMO, that people should obey mandatory evacuations. I live 2 miles away from a nuclear power plant, so I'm mindful of the (hopefully low) possibility of needing to do so. But, the reason it's not 100% clear is if you have a situation like I do. I have several feral cats that live indoors. However, I think I have a workable intermediate solution where I'd catch who I could, then open the windows for the ferals to "self-evacuate" and try to re-trap them later. (The ferals live indoors as I'm on a busy street and would prefer they not get turned into rugs.)

[Randi]

I think it's pretty stupid not go leave if there is a mandatory evacuation. Especially, if you can take your pets along. About ten years ago, we had a huge fire in one of our buildings, it started 5:00 in the morning and a friend of ours lived right on the edge of it, two floors below the roof. He had packed his most precious possessions, phoned us and came over.

This is what we saw out of our window.