If non-evacuees piss you off, you'll LOVE these ones:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/14/myrtle-beach-poorest-evacuating-costly-hurricane-florence

There was only one building at the Sandygate Village boarded up with plywood as the first gusts from Hurricane Florence punched through this 104-unit housing complex: the landlord’s office.

For many in this low income housing community in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, about a mile from the coast and a few hundred feet from the Waccamaw River, the image spoke volumes.

“They boarded up and now they’re gone,” said 57-year-old resident Henry Mitchell. “I thought they were supposed to do it for us too. It’s crazy.”

Mitchell, who is disabled and unemployed, was among the many residents here who did not evacuate due to financial concerns. “It’s too expensive to move out to a hotel, I could be out for days and I can’t afford to leave my home behind,” he said.

And they have been using school buses to move anyone who didn’t have a car or a ride so they could get to them.

Even if they didn’t end up with it spoon fed to them they literally didn’t have to do anything more than call the local PD or emergency management office or Red Cross office and ask.

It’s literally been all over TV, radio, the papers and everywhere else it could be said or printed how to get help evacuating if it’s needed.

At some point people have to do a minimum amount to seek the help.

If one is a convicted sex offender and cannot, say, reside within a certain distance of a school, then how does such a person go to a hurricane shelter?

(same question for outstanding warrants or undocumented immigration status)

In those cases they will, in fact, let the sex offenders stay in the jail. Not incarcerated just using it for shelter. Also they steer to shelters that are not in schools such as an existing homeless shelters.

I’m not aware of any shelter that checks immigration status. That’s a non-issue.

If you have an outstanding warrant then they will be happy to house you safe and sound in the jail. Your going to end up there anyway, so may as well surrender. Otherwise you are making a choice to choose remaining a fugitive from justice over being safe- and being a fugitive is a stupid choice regardless, but more so in this case. So worst case you gamble and go to the shelter and hope they don’t check and if they do you still end up safe and you get to deal with your warrant that you would have to eventually anyway.

And yes, when I was a deputy they ran shelters in my county for coastal residents. In NC. We never checked for warrants or sex offender status or anything else unless we got a call for a fight or disturbance you were involved in at the shelter.

Oh, okay, so if I have kids, then my choice is to remain at home or move my children in with every child molester in the county?

We did keep officers at every shelter, so of all places not a likely one for them to try anything.

But if people want to be irrational in fears then that’s a choice they can make.

evacuating was because they didn't think it would be that bad. WHAT!? I live in Charlotte. The Governor, the weathermen, the newspapers, literally everyone has been saying how catastrophic the flooding was going to be and not to pay attention to the lower hurricane category. Did they think it was just fake news?

Sometimes people found out it wasn’t the hard way.

Fake news, y'all.

have families of their own and should not have to put their lives at risk to undertake perilous rescues because ignorant people ignore evacuation warnings. Realizing that some people have valid reasons for not leaving, too many are just stubborn or gamblers with other peoples lives.

Please keep in mind that evacuation is another example of economic luxury in our country. It is expensive and can be physically challenging. I know, I've done it at least half a dozen times in my adult life.

The impoverished, elderly, infirm, etc. may not have much of a choice in the matter. Yes, those who can evacuate and don't are stupid and dangerous. Those who can't evacuate illuminate serious flaws in our society. Please do not assume all those left behind are staying willfully. Many are indeed left behind.

What I could see were nice two story houses with attached garages.

I do understand your point of evacuating being a tremendous hardship for some. And yes, our society has flaws for sure, but there are also so many good people that will do anything to help others.

I'm still haunted by an interview I saw yesterday on , I think, Myrtle Beach. There was a man who told the reporter that he didn't have a car, no driver's license and the shelter would not accept him because he had a dog. He said "I can NOT leave her behind so I'm going to stay.

On the reporter's twitter feed, people jumped in and said, "We will find a shelter that accepts pets for him". Please contact this man again and have him get in touch with us."

The reporter did track down the man and told him many people would like to help him. The man said he had made up his mind to stay and "ride it out" and besides, he had been through Hurricane Hugo and survived. The problem is that this hurricane's storm surge is way worse than what Hugo had.

The guy and his dog are likely dead today. It literally makes my heart ache.

Relatively low damage there, relatively safe. The storm surge in New Bern was 10-11 feet. This is many miles from the ocean. Damage is much worse in other areas. This is just where the reporters can get to.

This is not the time to blame the victims when you have little understanding of what is really happening. This

Anyone who wanted to leave had the opportunity made to them with a no-cost ride, shelter and food in the shelter.

you'd be lucky to be able to sleep on a cot with no pillow unless you brought one. if you did fall asleep, i't likely you would have anything you brought with you stolen.

There are many reasons not to evacuate.

Florence was forecast to be a Cat 4 on landfall.. it was a Cat 1.

Walk a mile in someone else s shoes before you denigrate people.

It sucks.

But it’s better than death.

And it’s better than staying and making other people risk their lives later for you.

My point is everyone had options to evacuate. Nobody was forced to. Economic circumstances did not force anyone to stay. They all had the alternative.

Now, they may have made the CHOICE to stay based on some economic situations. But it was still a choice. There was nobody who couldn't evacuate, contrary to how you portrayed it. Only those who chose not to.

We all make mistakes. There will always be a certain percentage of humans not equipped to evacuate. There are a myriad of reasons why they dont, or can't. That includes those who could have and should have but chose to stay. Some don't have the mental nor physical ability to leave. Probably more of these than you think.

The older I get the more compassion I am granted. Not much compassion going around these days. But I know that I fuck up sometimes, I am human. I try less judgement and more understanding makes me feel better about myself.

lower hurricane category because the flooding would still be catastrophic and to get out now. 4 people are now dead. I would think spending time in a shelter even if you had to sleep on a cot without a pillow would be preferable to death but what do I know>

Cardiac problems, Sciatica, hiatel hernia, other problems can make sleeping on a cot dangerous or at least painful. being diabetic and away from good food supplies can also be if not deadly, very dangerous, with effects that can last years.

The travel alone could be dangerous, I'm not supposed to remain in a seated position over 2 hours due to blood clots. are you certain they will stop the bus for me? I'm not.

If I can evacuate safely and I feel the need to I will. Hyped up threats like we have seen with Florence don't increase anyone's desire to evacuate. Constant over predicting, implications that people are stupid and threats.. like write your social security # on your arm are a part of the problem not the solution.

I evacuated to a shelter once in the 17 years I have lived near Tampa... I will leave for a Cat 4 or 5 storm, nothing less.

... I understand people worry about looting post storm but for god sake you do not have any items in your home that are worth your life, or the lives of the responders.

I think I'm going to have to take a break here. The lack of compassion and understanding and the rush to judgment is depressing the hell out of me. This thread is bringing me to tears.

I'm too emotional to debate this lack of empathy. Thank you dearly for doing it!

Somehow flinging crap becomes more important than having compassion for people who, for all kinds of reasons, are in real danger. But we don’t all feel that way.

Including right in the worst part of Irma, and have never left, for reasons many and true.

People being judgemental are shameful, clueless, and privileged.

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Changed to a bill, since fines need to be defined prior to offense.

Find out the total of water rescue costs and divide it amongst those saved.

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Do you really think people who can't afford to get out can afford the bill after? I'm sickened by this thread. I should have stayed away.

But I have no sympathy for the ones like the young woman who was interviewed yesterday on MSNBC and was going to ride it out in her half a million dollar beach house for the “adrenaline rush”. She had the means to leave.

Resources were there to move people and shelter than inland for anyone who needed it.

Ambulances from other counties and even states have been in the area several days moving people too medically fragile to evacuate in regalia transportation, at no cost.

Anyone who stayed did so by choice.

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The same thing happened in Katrina, where poor and elderly could not go anywhere. They were trapped by their situation.

My post was more for the jerks who place themselves at risk, when they had options, and then expect to be rescued later.

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not the least of which is science denial. Or lack of funds. Or lack of trust for government. Or concern for where to go with pets.

The thing that bothers me the most is wondering how many of these people may be Fox News watchers who have been programmed to distrust government and deny science. New Bern is a heavily Republican area of NC.

I happen to be a Weather Channel junkie and I have found it fascinating to listen to the meteorologists discuss the science of wind speed, direction, speed of the hurricane, rain fall, surge, high tide and all the factors that go in to the projection of areas that can most be affected by flooding, which is what usually provides the most risk to human life and the most damage to property. If people aren't inclined to be interested in or believe the science, they won't pay attention to the warnings of risk from anyone--including government.

I think what we're seeing here is not just "stupidity".

may have problems physically evacuating.

How many buses made available have wheelchair lifts for folks who depend on power wheelchairs?

People have trouble getting accessible transportation even in the best of times. Usually it's provided by these lift-equipped vans that generally can handle only two wheelchair users at a time.

The ADA only requires cities and towns to provide accessible transportation in regions that are served by mainstream mass transit. If a locality has little or no mass transit service, that means the accessible service will be puny to non-existent.

A huge problem with Katrina and its aftermath was how to handle people with significant disabilities. Many of them died.

Hopefully FEMA as learned those lessons, but given the current administration's contempt for people with disabilities, I doubt it.

All the counties west have sent ambulances and wheelchair transport vans to evacuate those in medically fragile conditions.

During Katrina the situation was quite different.

There were also problems that evidently hadn't even occurred to those in charge of disaster relief. For instance, people evacuating across state lines had problems getting their prescriptions filled. Pharmacies in Texas wouldn't accept Louisiana Medicaid--it was far too long before this bureaucratic glitch was straightened out. And what about people who need dialysis, when their own centers are shut down and the host community's facilities can't accommodate them?

All manner of issues no one had given much thought to, outside of the disability community that was directly impacted.

Let's hope, as I say, that FEMA has learned at least some of the lessons of Katrina, lessons for which too many folks paid for with their lives.

They could have a long wait

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Even if you can afford a hotel, most do not accept pets and shelters will not take them either. So do they go to a shelter and leave their pets to die?