As Hurricane Ian approached the coast, government officials issued mandatory evacuation orders, as they always do when a big storm approaches. Just like every mandatory evacuation order, there are always a few people who refuse to evacuate.
Ignoring a mandatory evacuation isn’t going to get you arrested or in any other trouble with the law. What it is going to get you is on your own. If you ignore a mandatory evacuation order and things go wrong, you are on your own. No help is coming to save you. Rescue services evacuate the area, and stop responding to calls for help. If you were one of the people who remained behind, that is your problem.
Now that the hurricane has passed, there are hundreds of reports of people who remained on barrier islands in the path of the hurricane who ignored orders to evacuate and are now begging for someone to come save them. A great example of this is Pine Island.
Pine Island is an 18 mile long barrier island that was right where the hurricane made landfall. The highest point on the island is approximately 10 feet above mean sea level. Some of the people who were on the island were residents, and at least one bills himself as an “extreme meteorologist” trying to make himself famous by getting storm footage.
By 0900, the entire island was without power. The storm surge hit the island with seas about 7 feet higher than normal, with waves and a high tide adding to that. The eye of the storm made landfall at 1500. By 1600, at least one resident on the island was begging for help.
“Please can someone send help,” Darcy Lynn Conner, of Bokeelia at the northern end of the island, posted at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
To all of the people who are mentioned in the article:
Have you bothered to think of the responders? Your selfish ass decided to do some stupid shit like stay on a 10 foot tall island in the face of 20 foot hurricane driven waves, and now you are expecting people to risk their lives to come and save you. On top of that, society will pay the expenses for the rescue attempts.
If you stayed and are trying to do it on your own, whatever. That’s on you. But if you are now begging for help, you are a selfish asshole who is getting more help than you deserve. Every one of those responders should be allowed to kick you dead in the balls.
7 Comments
Miguel GFZ · September 30, 2022 at 4:26 am
Barrier Islands have the capabilities of a speed bump string to stop an 18-wheeler.
Jerseygirl Angie · September 30, 2022 at 5:58 am
Exactly !!!
Sometimes ( rarely !) there are reasons to consider staying in place .
But , if you do , understand that once started , you are committed for the duration .
I always feel terrible for rescue workers who risk their lives to save people in dangerous situations because of their own stupidity . Hopefully the “victims” get a bill for the cost of the rescue .
Don Curton · September 30, 2022 at 7:47 am
I agree, but I also understand staying in place. Maybe not on a fricking barrier island, but stay in my house which has survived multiple hurricanes and never flooded? Sure.
Several years back (OMG, just looked, 2005, damn I’m getting old) Rita came into Texas. Authorities at that time decreed a mandatory evac of damn near the entire fricking state. I’m talking evac orders for towns over 50 miles inland! The people in charge panicked and the excessive evac orders tied up traffic so bad that the people who really had to leave (Galveston and assorted barrier island residents) were stuck in traffic behind people who would have been plenty safe at home.
So next one, I’m riding out at home. But I also understand that it’s going be just me. No one needs to come, I won’t call for help, I won’t expect help. You gotta just make the best decision for yourself and stand tall.
But yeah, barrier islands are not the place to ride it out.
Steve S6 · September 30, 2022 at 9:11 am
Darwin awards. In some cases family should have had competency hearings already.
Aesop · September 30, 2022 at 2:56 pm
I’m 50:50 on this.
Yes, Darwin should get his due, exactly as noted.
But either prosecute civic officials for granting building permits there, or ban all housing and development in perpetuity, and make it a park.
They can’t have this both ways.
This is asinine as the cities out here who let people build mansions hanging over the beach, or up in hillsides that burn, then mudslide down, every couple/three years, and they make a killing with “disaster relief” for being world-class jackholes. They should be fined for egregious public stupidity, and cut off from any disaster funds.
There’s some places no one should be building a house, unless they sign a waiver that states they’re completely on their own in all emergencies, forever, without further discussion. No service or relief funds whatsoever. Just taxes.
No? No build.
Fair is fair.
Divemedic · September 30, 2022 at 3:57 pm
There is something to that. Having been deployed to dozens of disaster sites, I can tell you that the vast majority of damage from hurricanes is within a mile of the waterfront. The houses there are killing the insurance market, but it will never happen because three quarters of Florida’s population is located within 10 miles of the coast.
Jester · October 2, 2022 at 3:46 pm
Yeah, I’m with the idea that there should be no rescues. Tough shit, you got days of head notice. It’s one thing if a sudden tornado hits or an earthquake (Though you should know if those happen in an area you choose to live) I get if you live on an actual state too, but it’s assholish to live on a barrier island and not think this might happen. Furthermore, Not only do these fuckwits take EMS away from other needs but they end up being the flag ship for grift and the whole climate change BS. Hurricanes happen. This was a light year for it but to not heed warnings to leave and then beg for help in the middle of a hurricane should be public ridicule, not sympathy.
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