Florence
This one’s not going to be funny.
Last week Hurricane Florence barreled out of the Atlantic Ocean and ground her way through the Carolinas, leaving all sorts of ruin and heartbreak in her wake. As a result of this storm, there has been something like $22 billion in property damage, and at least 42 people have died. Many hundreds of men, women, and children have been rescued from damaged and flooded homes. As I’m writing this, the nearly 11 trillion gallons of water dumped by the storm is flowing back toward the sea and creating even more problems. Authorities are still rescuing people and preparing for more deaths.
To the best of my knowledge, most or all of the deaths and evacuations happened in areas that were under mandatory evacuation orders. This means that in a perfect world, none of those people would have been there to need rescuing or to lose their lives. There are two fairly important things going on here.
First off, some people who live in these areas simply can’t afford to evacuate. If you don’t have a car, you can’t just hit the highway out of town. If do manage to hitch a ride, and you don’t have relatives inland or the money to pay for a motel, you have a problem. If you can’t find or understand whatever emergency transportation and shelter plan the local government might have in place, and if the local government can’t find you to help you, then you’re pretty much out of luck. This is a problem that municipalities large and small have struggled with for decades.
And then there are those folks who are just too stubborn to leave.