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I was wondering if someone can help me understand something thats been bothering me to no end.
After seeing the devastation from the hurricane in Bayswater, Seagate, and other places, I got a call from a friend that her friend had to get evacuated on Tuesday morning. I asked her why they didnt leave right away or at least when they saw how bad the situation was getting. She said that they had no place to go and had small children which made it harder.
Both those reasons are totally invalid for putting yourself, your spouse and children at risk!
Monday night made those areas completely impassible to hatzola and other volunteers, what if her friends house was completely demolished by the storm?! Then what?!
My question is: How could someone who lives in Zone A be so selfish to his/her small children by staying in such a dangerous place? I know that with 100% certainty another yid would have given them a place to stay! Another reason this made me so upset is because on Tuesday hatzola had to spend precious time that could have been spent saving someone who couldnt help their situation, by trudging through a devastated area to help evacuate someone who could have prevented their situation.
Instead of wasting your time getting upset go bring food to your friend who is hosting that other family. I would assume with the extra mouths to feed they would appreciate your help!
Miritchka, I felt the same way as you even before the storm hit and couldn’t believe how many people were ignoring the evacuation request. However, once it started getting bad it was too late to evacuate, they were told to stay put. If the house had more than one storey it was generally safer to stay than bracing the flooded and damaged roads, falling trees etc.
It does say “eizehu chochom? Haroah es hanolad” for a reason. Unfortunately after many “false alarms” people were in denial.
I remember all the warnings with Irene, which turned out to be nothing. I remember when an unpredicted storm caused tremendous damage to my block.
I don’t blame them. It’s really hard to pack up and move with kids, if you’re not feeling well, or for the elderly, to spend time in a shelter with strangers and leaving your home unoccupied. This time, they were wrong to stay.
miritchka – I feel the same way, even though I know I would have struggled with the thought of packing up. I remember being at a hotel with 7 little kids and we had a VERY hard time getting them to sleep. At about midnight an alarm indicated a tornado warning and we were all supposed to go down to the basement. I did NOT want to wake every one up and I couldn’t possibly carry them all. I looked for every excuse to ignore it but knew that in the end I would never forgive myself for being unsafe with my kids. It wasn’t fun, but we did it.
Keep in miund that there had been significant looting during previous evacuations where the losses from looting were greater than what had happened from the storm.
Perhaps people had been afraid of loorting losses. It is not so easy to judge. Nor is it neccesarily wise.
I don’t mean to be judging them. I am commenting on the actions they took, empathizing with the torn emotions and hopefully encouraging the next person to do differently.
Irene turned out to be the boy who cried wolf. Hindsight is 20/20 and we can pretty much all agree now that they should have evacuated. But nobody expected it to be as bad as it was. Many people just assumed they could “ride out the storm” at home (and guard their house from looting).
The problem is all along the coasts. People like to live near the water. The sea is pretty. The climate is more moderate (cooler in summer, warmer in winter). The only problem is that every so often you get a big storm. In theory the area should have been zoned for parkland – but that never worked out. The result is that even as storms are less frequent and milder than in the past (and they have records going back to the 1600s), the damage is worse.
akuperma: How far from the coast do you still deem too close to the coast for living conditions due to hurricane risk?
Miritchka: I second the moderator.
Torah613613torah does the username dhl144 have any connection to u?
More_2: No, it doesn’t.
Well you’re definitely both very similar.
miritchka -“I was wondering if someone can help me understand something thats been bothering me to no end.”
While you make good points and as a medical professional I’d agree, but as a Frum Yid I don’t. Chazal tell us not to judge others unless you’re in their place. They must have had a million thoughts racing through their mind. They are from the lucky ones, some stayed and didn’t survive. Anybody who isn’t/wasn’t affected by this storm should do whatever they can to help those who were.
Mr. Hooligan said to evacuate immediately. If you have done so, there is no need to do it again..
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