Ike Aftermath Pix
- Thread starter Jasher
- Start date
Thanks, Jasher - This is just additional reinforcement for persons to ALWAYS heed mandatory evacuation orders. Those persons who stayed behind to 'ride out the storm', totalling roughly 20,000 persons, are now facing broken homes, no water, no power, no roads, debris piles 40 feet high in what is left of their yards, no food, no community services and are NOW asking for local government help to survive.
In the opinion of many persons in local and state government, those persons who decide to stay behind and face the direct effects of the storm should be billed for all local and county services AFTER the event and AFTER they have refused to comply with the mandatory evacuation orders. They are a financial burden to those taxpayers who DID leave ahead of the storm, and this arrogance in those who stay behind should not be honored by government rescues and freebies.
I tend to agree with those persons in government who are calling for stricter evacuation orders with severe disciplinary legal penalties for those who stay behind.
As a weather analyist and Pastor, I see those who stay behind as being reckless - and some of them will not survive these storms, which also brings funerals into the situation. I am quite busy enough officiating at funerals the way that it is. Having to deal with the persons who do not have regard for their own lives or the lives of their families is something that clergy all over the Gulf Coast States would rather not have to address... but we do, at the request of the more civil minded family members who did evacuate or did survive by some stroke of fate.
These may sound like harsh words, but review the photos that Jasher supplied and consider the fact that approximately 20,000 persons in coastal Texas and southwestern Louisiana stayed behind to have this storm batter them unmercilessly. This was only a Category 2 storm. Those persons KNEW that it could have been a Cat 3 or Cat 4, but still remained behind by their own choice. Complete stupidity in the opinions of many in Public Safety and local Government.
In the opinion of many persons in local and state government, those persons who decide to stay behind and face the direct effects of the storm should be billed for all local and county services AFTER the event and AFTER they have refused to comply with the mandatory evacuation orders. They are a financial burden to those taxpayers who DID leave ahead of the storm, and this arrogance in those who stay behind should not be honored by government rescues and freebies.
I tend to agree with those persons in government who are calling for stricter evacuation orders with severe disciplinary legal penalties for those who stay behind.
As a weather analyist and Pastor, I see those who stay behind as being reckless - and some of them will not survive these storms, which also brings funerals into the situation. I am quite busy enough officiating at funerals the way that it is. Having to deal with the persons who do not have regard for their own lives or the lives of their families is something that clergy all over the Gulf Coast States would rather not have to address... but we do, at the request of the more civil minded family members who did evacuate or did survive by some stroke of fate.
These may sound like harsh words, but review the photos that Jasher supplied and consider the fact that approximately 20,000 persons in coastal Texas and southwestern Louisiana stayed behind to have this storm batter them unmercilessly. This was only a Category 2 storm. Those persons KNEW that it could have been a Cat 3 or Cat 4, but still remained behind by their own choice. Complete stupidity in the opinions of many in Public Safety and local Government.
Harsh words or not - I agree WHOLEHEARTEDLY. I DID evacuate, and I am saddened enough with the damage we are facing, but to see adults not evacuating with babies and small children just simply makes me FURIOUS!