I'm interested by the flame wars regarding evacuating New Orleans [View All]

[WilliamPitt]

Maybe I don't know enough about it.

But I do know a fair bit about hurricanes. Been through several of them. Gloria had the National Guard out on my street, and Bob (yeah, there was a hurricane named Bob, go figure) put a big goddam tree through the roof of my house...right through the top like a spear.

I know a bit about hurricanes, but I also know about the dozens of hurricanes I never experienced because they bloomed and then veered away. Hurricanes are capricious; they are totally unpredictable. In 72 hours, a hurricane can decide to go four different directions at any given time, power up or power down, or bag it altogether. There's a degree of predictability to it, but at the end of the day it's an animal that will do as it pleases.

I'd hate to be the city manager, in charge of a million people, staring at a hurricane 72 hours away and trying to decide whether to evacuate or not. Say 'Go,' and a million people get on the road...and the hurricane spins out over the Yucatan like it has the last fifty times and hits the city no harder than a hard rainstorm.

That's your ass, and rightly so. Probably more than a few people got robbed, hurt or killed during the exodus you ordered for, as it turned out, no good reason.

I also know a bit about the public servants who swing into action for these things, the ones who make the call when a call has to be made, the ones who get caught flat-footed when the weather decides to do something it has never done before. My mom was in charge of plowing in our city - the whole flippin' city - when the blizzard of '78 hit.

All the reports had the storm dropping a few inches and then moving out to sea. It came through and dropped about a foot...and then moved out to sea...and gained strength...and backed up...and stalled. For another two days. Three more feet of snow fell, and it was well and truly a humanitarian disaster. No one could get out, no one could get food, no one had been expecting it so no one was prepared, and the power was out all over the place.

My mom disappeared for a week, out on the streets and working the phones, and coordinating rescues, and finally came home and slept for two days straight.

So. I wouldn't want to be the one to make that call, and I have nothing but respect for those working to soften the unexpected blow. I'm surprised people are fighting about this. I guess it's easy to judge, or something.

EDIT: To add a great point made by Hekate...

There's so much actual evil emanating from the BFEE and VRWC that I think it makes people jumpy -- makes some of them see conspiracy when it's not there.

Bush didn't make the hurricane happen and he can't plot it's course.

He did send all or most of the National Guard troops to Iraq, where they can only sit and agonize over the home-folks. Governors all over the country utilize their state NGs to help out in times of natural disaster, and they have seen this train-wreck coming. That's Bush's doing.

Hekate