Dear People Who Didn't Leave Galveston:

[rachaeldoss]

NO

Comments

[minimery]

Gotta wonder about people sometimes. I mean yeah, I understand that your stuff/life is destroyed and I'd be upset too but why would you not leave to safety?

[rachaeldoss]

Yeah, I pretty much can guarantee you that the important stuff, the pets and I would be long gone :-)

[grosely_clerx]

I didn't see what you saw on the Today Show, but most of the pictures I've seen of the Galvestonians have been pretty blasé. They threw hurricane parties. They pushed their cars through waist-deep water. Even the ones that had their houses ruined look pretty "meh" about it. Galveston people are fucking used to having their town ripped up one side and down the other - that's why all the houses within a quarter mile of the coast are on stilts. It's nothing like New Orleans, where you saw mobs of people with HELP US!! signs frantically screaming at helicopters like cornered wildebeests. By contrast, I keep seeing pictures like this

[rachaeldoss]

Oh, the people they showed on the today show were all sobs and they "needed HEEEEEEEEELP. Why was no one HELLLLLLLPING them???"

I guess they're upset because they're stuck in Galveston with no water or electricity. Not ALL of the people, mind you - one guy was like, "Yeah, I'll just stay on the third floor of my house til I get the first floor cleaned up" and Matt Lauer said, "But you don't have water or electricity" and the guy was like, "I'll make do."

But there were some people on there whining like they didn't get a warning or a chance to leave.

And I'm sorry, but they had about 4 days where they were pretty sure it was coming right at them. If people wait until the last second to go, then it's on them for getting in traffic jams.

[grosely_clerx]

That's the thing about the evacuation routes, though - even if you discount the fact that a lot of people can't afford to take a week off work and live in a hotel for six days (not everyone has Gramma's house in a couple hour's drive), the evacuation route takes them through Houston, a city of 2.2 million people, many of whom also evacuate (the greater Houston area, which includes Galveston, has about 5.6 million people). Those factors make evacuation a lot less feasible than it sounds from the outside. It really is a coin toss for a lot of people.

But yeah, in principle, I think we're in agreement. If I stuck it out, I'd be prepared to CAMP for a week. That's what happens when a frickin' hurricane comes through, and the cleanup looks like it's MUCH less of a clusterfuck than I'd expect elsewhere. Coastal Texas is extremely well-equipped to handle this kind of smackdown.

[grosely_clerx]

Ah - and for perspective, according to Wikipedia, the state of Alabama had almost 4.6 million residents, as of 2006.

[caldermobile]

If a state official told me to write my ssn on my arm in sharpie so that they could identify my body afterwards and I chose to stay, then it's time to pull me from the gene pool.

"Nearly 2,000 people who did not evacuate have been rescued along the southeastern Texas coast, said Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Office of Homeland Security."

And most should have to pay a fine to the state to recoup some of the costs. Search and rescue are putting their lives at risk to save BillyBob because he wanted to have a party with his redneck friends.

Not pissy; just interested. :)

[zeitgeist]

As someone who grew up just 10 miles from Galveston, I can tell you the situation is not quite as clear as it may seem. I've read the discussion above, and grosely_clerx is precisely right about the evacuation route. The route out of Galveston is up I-45 directly through the center of downtown Houston, which is completely unworkable for an evacuation of that size. Beside that factor, many of these folks did evacuate "next time" - where "next time" was Hurricane Rita - and more people died in the evacuation than in the storm. With that in recent memory, it's not at all surprising that the doomsayers in government and meteorology have lost some credibility on the subject

Re: Not pissy; just interested. :)

[zeitgeist]

All that, and I forgot the most important point of my reply, which is that I agree with you. I can totally understand people staying, and I probably would have stayed too (though maybe not ON the island), but if you stay, you don't really get to whine about it.

You do, though, get to whine about losing everything, just like the people who left and also lost everything. :)

Re: Not pissy; just interested. :)

[rachaeldoss]

Well, sure. No one likes for all their stuff to wash out to sea :-(

Re: Not pissy; just interested. :)

[rachaeldoss]

I've said everything I can possibly say to speak to what you're mentioning, except for to answer your question, which I would say YES of course I would leave. If someone said that it would mean certain death for me to stay, I'm not staying. I would be gone before they had the chance to say, "Oh, it slowed down" or whatever. Because I don't play with my life and I also don't like the idea of "getting stuck."

But look - you're asking this to a person who would go to the airport the day before a flight if I could, just to make sure nothing kept me from getting there in time for my departure. So I'm not sure asking me that is going to jar the response you're hoping. :-)