What I just saw on MSNBC really pissed me off. The Coast Guard

had to do a dangerous rescue of some idiots that wouldn't leave their pier/bait and tackle shop in Galveston. The reporter was able to talk to one of the men rescued, and she asked him if he would leave next time there was an evacuation order. He said he's lived there all his life, so no, he wouldn't leave.

"Well, then don't call the angels to come rescue you at our expense, you stubborn idiot!" is what I'd like to tell him.


He had no fresh water or food stored.

Just have to ask.

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Ironically he would have drowned except he went up to the third floor to watch fucking TV!

And of course the first thing he does after the helicopter lets him down is light a cigarette.

Oh well another republican voter saved by the USCG.

He had no message of thanks to the Coast Guard, despite the fact that it was dangerous for them to rescue his sorry butt when he didn't heed warnings to leave.

:wow: I would have kissed them! Actually I would have left when warned too. No need of rescue.

maybe drop some bottles of water.

His attitude really pissed me off.

is because when we lived in San Antonio and it rained hard, the roads would flood. They would put baracades up to stop idiots from driving into deep water and many times getting swept away by the cross current. There were ALWAYS some idiots who would drive around the baracades, and of course SOMW would need rescued. The emergency crew would save them BUT they were CHARGED because they had deliberately ignored the warnings.

I have no idea if that was just in San Antonio or not. If it's a Tx. thing, there well may be a fine for ignoring the evacuation orders.

know if the Coast Guard is going to bill them. I think the SA city employees do those rescues and they can bill them. It always bugged me that they would drive around the freaking barracades then say, "It didn't look that deep," while the water is rushing away.

doesn't also pay the taxes that provide those services? He has every right to stay if he wants to stay. Personally, I would've blazed a trail away from there. But I would never impose judgement on someone who decided to stay. He has a reasonable expectation that if worse comes to worse, he can depend on his local emergency services and reap the benefit of being a hard-working taxpayer.

means MANDATORY EVACUATION. What part of that could they not understand?

guard.

paid for the right to be rescued once he has survived the storm. If it had killed his silly ass, no one could be faulted but him.

The very term implies something that happens unexpectedly. In this case, the residents were told in dramatic fashion that if they stayed, they faced certain death. I thought it was a little over the top myself, but they were trying to hit home the urgency of the situation, I suppose.

I like what Nagin said in LA: "If you stay, it's on you. Don't expect to get rescued." Then people can decide for themselves.

they were fed a lot of hooey about the place being utterly destroyed and having just seen the same hooey being told about gustav, they were skeptical -- the word "certain" has a meaning and now we realize that this meaning is not taken seriously by the media or even by the national hurricane service -- exaggerations don't help one's credibility

the working poor of new orleans have paid a very high price in complying w. the evacuation order for gustav, which proved to be completely unnecessary -- do you think texans are stupid and aren't aware of this, esp. since it JUST NOW OCCURRED this past labor day weekend in the state right next door?

hell, everyone paid a price but it's worse for the hourly worker who is both out money they would have owned and also had to spend an estimated $1,000 on gas, food, transport, lodging to evacuate

people can't afford to ask "how high" every time the gov't says "jump," not in this economy

wake up and smell the coffee

poor people with a microphone thrust in their face aren't necessarily going to admit they were too poor to evacuate, believe it or not, some people have their pride

if you like what nagin said, you need to come to new orleans and educate yourself -- the man lied thru his teeth claiming gustav was a monster 900 miles wide, the resulting panic has cost this state hundreds of millions of dollars and apparently about 20 lives -- if his panic mongering just cost you your parents (as happened to one local musiciam) or your job, i wonder if you would like what nagin said quite so much

nagin in my opinion was CRIMINAL to panic and gridlock the roads w. new orleans parish evacuation that didn't need to be, instead he should have kept the roads clear for people from the low-lying parishes who were on the front path of the storm, that's just basic decency and common sense

if gustav had turned out to be a more powerful storm, he would have the blood of hundreds of not thousands of travelers who would have been pinned in their cars

he would have been raked over the coals! C'mon, now! He wasn't the one who predicted this storm; he merely echoed what was told him.

It is my understanding that people were provided buses as transportation to shelter in other cities. I saw the places myself on the news(was it in Houston?). There were people bytching that they wanted to go home, LOL. You can't please some people, I guess...I am not aware that the people who had no money had to spend $1000 for costs related to evacuation. You might just want to check those facts carefully (and don't tell me about those who left at the last minute in their cars; they could have left when the buses were scheduled to depart.

Oh, and just a thought: for those who survived Katrina and CHOSE to use their insurance money to rebuild at sea level? Well, what can you say?

And he says he will do it again if it happens again. I'm sorry, it is arrogant of him to have other put their lives on the line so save him in this situation.

i would be astonished if any great number of people joined that service just hoping to twiddle their thumbs all day -- NO -- the purpose is such things as drug interdiction, disaster and hurricane rescue, and so on

i seriously doubt the guy assumed he would need to be rescued, he prob. assumed he'd be okay, as most people have to do in order to keep going when they can't afford to do anything else

that I THOUGHT was also my right as a taxpayer WASN'T FREE!!!!!! My husband was taken to the ER from his Drs. examining room, and a week later I got a $475 BILL! It his case, he wasn't ignoring any mandatory evacuation OR breaking any lasw by going around barracades! I always find it amusing that so many people THINK all those services are FREE!!!!

i've certainly heard of being billed far more than you were

it is unfortunate that we must pay or do w.out medical care in this country but everybody knows that you never call an ambulance if you can possibly find another way, it's just too costly

it shouldn't be that way and calling for other rescue services to be as shitty and blood-thirsty for money as the health care services is not the direction i want to take MY country

at all. It was a lot more expensive that I thought it would be!

As to nobody thinking ambulence/medical services are free in the USA...I sure have read a whole lot of posts on DU that insist the perfect answer to our HC problems is to expand Medicare, and what they include in their posts us sure sounds like they think it's FREE! I've answered many of them by explaining how much medicare costs, and not even including supplementals!

then needs surgery "at our expense" as a result . Do we refuse surgery or bill the person because they were warned ahead of time?

are still high winds. I think it is inconsiderate to be so stubborn that he expects others to risk their asses to bail his ass out.

when they refuse to leave their homes during a hurricane. The fact is that many people will not leave their homes during a hurricane and there are several reasons why they make that decision. But they are taxpayers.

entire parishes (counties) were under mandatory evacuation, no one who had to stay for one reason or another (the reason mostly being that they were poor or old or had too many pets hence couldn't find a shelter or hotel) were or should have been billed

people in hurricane zones "may" become "serial" non-evacuees in need of help more than once because MOST people who are old only continue to get older and more infirm, hence can't stand the rigor of sitting in traffic for hours at a heat index of 108 degrees and MOST people who are poor never have any prospect of improving themselves financially and suddenly becoming wealthy enough to afford to evacuate at gov't whim

the working poor of new orleans have been financially devastated by the unneeded evacuation for gustav

at such time as everyone is forever young, strong, and rich, we can talk about billing people who don't evacuate for needing to be rescued

by the way, one couple i know was rescued by the canadians, so how does that work? does CANADA send them a bill? erm, nope, don't think so

what's wrong with people?

i expect cruelty like this on "mixed" sites but not on DU but i don't know why i allow myself to be surprised

the OP is ignorant and mean-spirited and you're just egging on ignorance and mean-spiritedness -- people may talk "big" to media and claim that they didn't evacuate because they're tough tall texans, the truth is, people don't evacuate because they can't afford to or they're not strong enough

And unforgivable to knowingly put another at risk for you.

yep, you get to go after these idiots time and time again

Only starts to change when they get charged for it

What the local fire rescue service started doing for people that took a car swim in the river

for being willing to do rescue work.

It should be their choice to stay or go but they shouldn't really expect rescue if they stay.

It's on you if you stay. Your choice. Ray Nagin said this during Gustav and I think it made people really take it seriously. If you know your ass is on its own, you may think twice!

Macomb County Sheriff Dept. bought some kind of amphibious vehicle specifically for this type of rescue. Think expensive.

Yup, it sank during a rescue. That set off a big public debate.

Serial strandees now pay, bigtime!

people choose to go ice fishing and they're out nothing if they never in their entire lives go out ice fishing, that's a completely different situation from a hurricane, where they could lose their lives or their homes if the gov't orders them to sit in traffic for 10 hours in intolerable heat, older people in particular at a risk of DEATH from evacuating in stop and go traffic

we had over 20 deaths from gustav, the ones i've heard described are evacuation CAUSED such things as a musician lost BOTH of his elderly parents in a car accident in the horrid traffic, an 88 yr old woman had a heart attack in the gridlock and couldn't get to a hospital in time, and so on and so forth

is the gov't going to compensate their families because they DIED for complying w. a bullshit mandatory evacuation order?

hmmm, i don't think so

the gov't is not punished for making a mistake? only the little guy who can't afford it is to be punished for making a mistake?

what the hell is the matter with you people?

unlike the monday night quarterbacks who apparently have nothing better to do but sit around and gripe that their taxes should never go to the coast guard to help rescue people, every penny apparently must go to killing people in iraq and propping up halliburton stock prices

i feel like double checking to see if i'm still on DU because there are some wacky ideas being posted here

clue train to the ignorant-- people under stress sometimes say stupid things, so what, you don't drown them for it if you have an ounce of human decency