Real help - what would it look like

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Drop water,granola bars, sunscreen and insect repellent in air tight bags all over the f---ing place! Put it in bright orange fluorescent bags that would be easy to find and see.

Send in people with satellite phones who can relay information to a website so people can find out if their relatives are dead or alive.

Every church in the country and every town or city council and every private group possible should "adopt" a minimum of one Hurricane family or group of survivors. Bring them to your city, give them housing ,food and possible temporary jobs until they can get back home again.

Start a huge, government- backed Habitat for Humanity -type program that gives poorer, working class people decent housing to go back into. Not projects!! But individual houses scattered throughout the communities.

ENFORCE BETTER BUILDING CODES!!!! Build concrete houses with hurricane shutters. They can be attractive and safe at the same time! Use this crappy opportunity that fate has given us - don't let's build the same type of vulnerable housing on our coasts. (Maybe we need to build escapes and cupolas into the roofs.)

Learn from the communication black holes that are evident in this crisis. FIX THIS PROBLEM!! For heavens sake, isn't this what happened to the firefighters on 9/11? FEMA, Homeland Security - it's not worth shit if you cannot communicate on the ground.

Develop Mass transit!!! Look what happens when people get gridlocked into a deathtrap.

Establish "evacuation partners". Let the cities and town send out a survey that asks "In the event of an evacuation would you be willing to transport another citizen" Simple yes or no. If someone answers yes, then hopefully they could be put in touch with someone in their nearby area who is for whatever reason unable to evacuate independently. If a hurricane or natural disaster came to your area and you had been assigned an evacuation buddy - then you would make sure to take them with you.

This is all I could think of this moment. But I am thinking that if people live on the shoreline, it would not be unreasonable to store a rubber boat , life jackets, and supplies in your attic. We will see more of these super hurricanes because of global warning.

[intheflow]

1. About a granola & water drop

How about giving those items to news helicopters to toss out while they're taking camera shots of starving dehydrated people on rooftops? It makes me crazy to see people in such dire circumstances and the helicopters just flying by filming their suffering and fear.