As the first of the 2 million people who fled Gustav began to trickle home Tuesday from shelters, many grumbled about the food, the heat, the overcrowding, the uncertainty, and the frustrating wait for the all-clear. Some evacuees, particularly in Texas, on the far fringes of the storm's path, suggested authorities overreacted in demanding they leave their homes.Rico says Ms Jones is right, they should all stay put when the next one comes through. We like watching stupid people drown; it makes great television. (Just kidding. We don't actually like watching anyone drown, but if they're going to drown, at least they're improving the breeding stock...)
"Next time, it's going to be bad because people who evacuated like us aren't going to evacuate," Catherine Jones, 53, of Silsbee, Texas, who spent three days on a cot at a church shelter with her disabled son. "They jumped the gun."
Emergency officials strongly defended the decision to evacuate coastal areas, saying that with something as unpredictable as a hurricane, it is better to be safe than sorry, a lesson driven home by Katrina, which killed 1,600 people in the US in 2005, compared with nine US deaths attributed to Gustav.
04 September 2008
This is how Darwinian selection works
Seems some people are grumbling about having fled the 'mother of all storms' that turned out to be something less:
As we were driving out last Friday the radio was talking about the pick up points for special needs evacuees. I made the comment that if you had special needs, you had no business being in New Orleans. There weren't enough services to take care of you and you would be better off someplace else. My wife was aghast at my callousness but I hold firm. NOLA should be viewed as a frontier town and if you cannot fend for yourself, you should stay away.
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