skeleton-on-parade:

Some recommendations about the way you talk about hurricanes

If you see folks making comments about how, “stupid,” “ignorant,” “selfish,” etc. people are who don’t evacuate from a hurricane…..stop them. And you CERTAINLY should not be making those comments yourself.

I lived down south for 2 years, including during Hurricane Harvey last year. I lived about 2 hours away from Houston. I didn’t evacuate, even though it probably would have been safer (we had quite a bit of flooding and were unable to get to medical attention for several days!) The people in Houston had it WAY worse. So, why didn’t people listen to the weather channel that the storm would be bad?

1. Um, people have jobs. I SPECIFICALLY know that the job that I worked, it was an unexcused absence if you were gone more than 32 hours before expected landfall of a hurricane in which MANDATORY EVACUATION had been ordered. If Mandatory Evacuation wasn’t ordered, you had better be at your job (or you would not have a job).
2. You MUST return to work (again, after Mandatory Evacuation) 24 hours after landfall. Regardless of the state of flooding, storming, damage, etc.
3. As was the case for Harvey, IT WAS NOT A MANDATORY EVACUATION. The last time Houston had a mandatory evacuation, PEOPLE DIED on the way to San Antonio and Dallas because our infrastructure is so unable to withstand mass evacuation. It was determined that it was SAFER for them not to call for an evacuation in this case.
4. What do you do if you don’t have a car? Money for gas? Just hop in a strangers car and hope for the best? The “bussing” they do out of the city does nothing. FEMA benefits happen post-disaster, which doesnt help me when I have to spend $40 I don’t have on a shitty motel room.

People, funnily enough, do not enjoy sitting out hurricanes.

There is no joy that you take out of the process, nobody is being stubborn, people are TRYING TO SURVIVE.

And then you get people who comment, “Well why do people even live there to begin with.”

This happened a lot with Katrina and New Orleans, so let me pose to you this question: where would you get your goods from? Who do you suggest works the Ports of New Orleans (which see well over 200 million tons of cargo a year, and is one of the top 10 ports IN THE WORLD). Unfortunately, it is the mouth of a river that extends deeply inland (fun fact, the Mississippi starts in Minnesota). People have to live there so that the citizens of the US can live their lives as they do – so why do people get to make commentary on the “dumb” people who live there in the first place?

Also, let me be crystal clear here – the infrastructure to evacuate is not present.

So unless you’re going to try to help people and you are actively donating your money, time, vehicles, homes, groceries, etc.

Don’t comment on the status of evacuees/non-evacuees.