I do feel bad for those who are trapped after the storm, but.....

[imanamerican63]

the authorities warned everyone to leave the area since Tuesday! I understand they had reasons to stay, but again your life and the life of a someone that has to rescue you is undoubtedly the most valuable issue!

[alarimer]

1. Some people can't afford to go.

Because they can't afford a hotel room for many nights or because shelters won't take pets and they won't leave them behind.

As we saw in Katrina, some people have no transportation either and officials make no provisions for them.

My parents (SC) are lucky: they have a motor home and can go anywhere and stay for days if need be and take the dogs with them.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. That's the biggest reason people don't evacuate.

A lot of people, even if they have a car, can't even afford the gas to get them out of harm's way. It costs a lot of money to evacuate, too much for about a quarter of the people on the hurricane's track.

[mcar]

4. Lots of shelters open

And some do take pets.

[RockaFowler]

12. Only 1 shelter in each county takes pets

And they fill up fast

Also, there were a lot of people who were not given time off to even take care of their homes.

My husband had to work Wednesday and Thursday. He took off Tuesday thank God and he was able to get the shutters up.

[Shankapotomus]

13. If the only reasons not to go

are affordability and pets, what's so hard about sleeping in your car a night or two near public restrooms? As long as you're not disabled or otherwise physically unable to tolerate it, it sounds kind of fun.

[LWolf]

3. wow

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to evacuate millions of people in a few days? And where, exactly, are all those millions going? They won't all fit in hotels and friends' houses in neighboring counties or states.

And, if you yourself don't have your own way out, what are you going to do? Walk?

Trying to blame victims is despicable.

[imanamerican63]

5. Ok! I get your point..

But, yes I do know what it is like to help evacuate millions of people. I was in the Army and we we were called into coast of Georgia when a few hurricanes where to the coast and help evacuate those people! Most of them left on there own, but they took our help to get out! I must clarify myself, also! I don't mean to harsh towards the who could not afford to leave and I don't blame them.

[LWolf]

19. Okay.

[GulfCoast66]

15. Maybe in Katrina

But there are no poor people living on Florida's Barrier Islands. Some of the most expensive real estate in the state. I have a relative on Merritt Island that choose to stay. Still have not heard from he and his wife. The are wealthy but did not want to deal with the traffic and they have 4 pets. We practically begged them to come stay with us, 2 hours away.

I am worried to death about he and his wife, but am pragmatic enough to realize that in this case, the victim will be to blame if something bad happened. And that is the case for everyone of the people on Merritt Island, Cocoa Beach, Canaveral and all the other barrier Islands that were hit last night. They had the time and means to leave.

Have a nice day.

[cwydro]

6. I never evacuated. Those who ended up "trapped" were those who left and couldn't return.

Many of my friends who evacuated the Keys in various storms found that the authorities would not allow them back for several days after the storm passed. People were angry because they couldn't get back to their homes.

It's one of the reasons I never left. I completely understood that I couldn't call for help if I needed it.

It was never a decision made lightly, but we never regretted it.

[Adrahil]

8. The problem I have with that kind of decision...

is that people WOULD risk their lives to help you. Is the incovnenience of being kept out of the area for a few days really worth that?

[The2ndWheel]

17. There's the problem

If someone willingly accepts the risks of staying in situations like these, then they've willingly accepted the risks of staying in situations like these. It's not complicated. If they make it, great. If not, there will be plenty of people alive on the planet tomorrow.

[jmg257]

7. It may seem foolish or selfish, but my folks and many neighbors decide to stay put. (Ft Pierce)

At 80-90+ years old it is just easier to take your chances.

My pop's disabled, needs a wheel chair/walker etc. They have a cat to deal with.
When they were getting ready (i.e. my mom running around picking up food, supplies, hanging hurricane shutters etc) there were already lines and traffic was messy. They recommended not even going down because they knew it would be crazy, and you get stuck in state for days afterwards.

They are more concerned about getting stuck away from home.

Tough call when you cannot up and leave in an instant.

Luckily the winds never got too bad, though no power now of course.

[ksoze]

9. Suicide is fine, but taking rescuers with you is criminal

I saw reports yesterday showing people staying because they, "don't want to leave their stuff". Responders jump into action regardless of who wants to be saved. Those same people will cry for help when the crap hits the fan and then someone has to risk their life for a bad decision.

[CRK7376]

10. My son is a Grad Student

at Florida Tech in Melbourne. His school canceled classes on Wednesday after 1:00pm. He spent most of the afternoon gathering supplies and it took him hitting 4 different gas stations to fill up his Altima in prep for the storm. His apartment is just outside of the mandatory evacuation zone for a Cat 5 storm. He planned to ride out the storm at his apartment, weather/adreninal junkie that he is. He and I agreed it would have been too difficult to try to make the drive North on I-95 with stop/go/slow crowded highway traffic full of pissed of people. Once in north FL or GA, how many gas stations would still have gas? So he stayed in his apartment Wednesday night and prepared more for the hurricane. Moved his electronic stuff to kitchen/bathroom counters, taped windows prepped the best he could and yesterday morning about 11am he evacuated to Meadowlane Intermediate School, one of the designated Evac Shelters in Melbourne. He and about 500 people rode out the storm there. He popped up online this monring about 8am all well and stated that some parts of Melbourne still had power. We are extremely thankful that the storm has cranked it down some compared to being a Cat 5, that our son did alright last night and hopefully his apartment is intact. Luckily for him, his fall break is next week so he has some time away from the academics and can help with recovery operations in and around Melbourne. Mom and Dad are very relieved and hope that the rest of FL and our southern coastline are as lucky as Austin. Good Luck FL, GA, SC and my state NC!

[Delphinus]

14. Glad to hear that.

I know you are much relieved to hear his story.

[a la izquierda]

16. I lived in Oklahoma for a long time while doing my PhD.

Evacuating for a hurricane was obviously never required, but if I knew a tornado was coming (which happened a bit), where could I go? I had three dogs and there was only one small tornado shelter that took pets. I rode out two potential F-5s in my office closet with three dogs. My husband had hunkered down in the bathtub, knowing that we may not survive if in fact an F-5 hit us (it turned away from us, fortunately). But I wasn't leaving my dogs.
I realize this isn't the same thing and I see your point about risking the lives of first responders. But many simply can't leave because of health, $$, animals, etc.

[duncang]

18. To me it's a split decision

I can't know every reason someone may stay. Or what they were thinking as valid reasons. I have left a few times and stayed other times. But I have always lived at least 50 miles away from the coast.

On another post here I told about one time we left. I was a kid. We were on the road and the hurricane shifted. It was supposed to go the other direction we were traveling. It followed us. Being stuck out on the road in a rv was a nightmare. We did park up against a what appeared to be solid structure. But watched all night as it wiggled.

Another more recent hurricane we went west to go toward Austin. A guy I knew from work went to Dallas. They got stuck in traffic because of our governors inaction. (Texas) His mother in law died from a heart attack while stuck. The stress was just too much. There is no way to know if she would have died that day anyways, but they probably will be very leery of evacuating next time. The hurricane came and moved off while people were still on the highways around Texas.

Personally I can't see anyone out on the barrier islands staying. If you live some place like that you should be prepared to leave. No excuses.

In the end the local and state government had stopped all rescues while it was considered unsafe for the rescue workers. So as far as I know anybody even though they asked for rescue had to take responsibility for their decisions and wait until safe for rescuers.