What would you do now?

[C.Ann]

What if another massive disaster of this proportion were to happen 3 or 4 weeks from now.. The scenario regarding timelines for the storm and evacuation were the same.. The hurricane was barreling along and expected to be a Cat 5.. Part of the evacuation plan in your area is to go to the "Superdome" of their choice.. You have no means of getting out of Dodge on your own.. Maybe you're poor - maybe you're elderly and frail - maybe you're wheelchair bound - maybe you don't want to leave your pets - maybe you're a tourist..

Would you follow those directions in light of what has just happened - or would you ride it out on your own?

 

[JimB.]

Unfortunately, This COULD very well happen.

Hurricane season does not peak for a few more weeks. It is predicted that there will be 8 or 9 NAMED storms by the end of October, 5 hurricanes & 3 of the "major".

46% chance of the United states being struck in September, 18% chance in October.

If it comes, my DW & kids are Leav-ing. I'm a firefighter, so I'll have to stay.

If i had no means of getting out, I'd look a lot harder. I don't think people think "big" things will fail. It's the SUPERDOME. Nothing is going to happen to it.

But, realistically, I don't think this scenario will play out in light of recent events.

Hopefully we LEARN OUR LESSONS from these things, that people DO THEIR JOBS CORRECTLY.

But if I lived in a city below sea level, I WOULD find a way out. Somehow.

 

[shelby_36]

I'd start walking.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Honestly--now that I know how bad a sheltering situation can be.....I'd do anything but go to one.

Tough question though to answer.

I have a vehicle and I have a place to go.

 

[Rajah]

We have 2 vehicles, enough carriers for all our kitties, and several options of where to go.

No question, for us -- we'd get out.

 

[Saffron]

Since I have a car I'd get going, but that would always be my plan.

But ... since you said we have no means of getting out ... just shelter together at the Spectrum or ride it out, I'd ride it out. There is no way I'd leave my dog behind. I'd die with him or stay alive with him. He's a big, beautiful almost 9 year old black Lab, we've been together since he was 8 weeks old and he's named Jacob Marley for a reason. Just like Dickens' character to Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley is my partner in life.

 

[shelby_36]

I love my pets but I would never die for them or risk my childrens lives for my pets life.

 

[staci]

I really like your question. It is extremely disturbing to try to come up with an answer that I am okay with, though. I like the question because it forces us into teh place of all those people who were requiring rescue this past week. A few people have passed the blame off onto the poor people who didnt have the means to evacuate the city. To really consider this question, and what I might do in that situation, is frightful and humbling. There is no 'good' response.

I suppose I would work my way toward the superdome. While the conditions were deplorable, and I would fear for my ds's safety, they did all get evacuated, with the exception of a few deaths. I am afraid the death toll for those who remained in their homes will much higher.

 

[totalia]

What if another massive disaster of this proportion were to happen 3 or 4 weeks from now.. The scenario regarding timelines for the storm and evacuation were the same.. The hurricane was barreling along and expected to be a Cat 5.. Part of the evacuation plan in your area is to go to the "Superdome" of their choice.. You have no means of getting out of Dodge on your own.. Maybe you're poor - maybe you're elderly and frail - maybe you're wheelchair bound - maybe you don't want to leave your pets - maybe you're a tourist..

Would you follow those directions in light of what has just happened - or would you ride it out on your own?

I'm hoping that I can convince my fiance not to go back. It would be better if he stayed in Tennessee.

 

[MouseDogMom]

It is so hard to answer until you're in that situation. I'm grateful every day that I have the resources to pack the important things (although I haven't yet determined what they are), my family and my dog, and go somewhere safe. But I know from previous experience that the urge to stay with your house is strong (we live in Raleigh and weathered Fran, and had to leave town for my brother's wedding the day Floyd was predicted to come ashore as a cat 5 headed for us as well). If I didn't have those resources, I don't know if I would have left last weekend, and I don't know if I would even leave now. I'd like to hope that we'll all be more prepared, stock more canned food, water, whatever, but who really knows until it happens to you...

 

[mamalle]

after what we went through last year with frances- I believe I would take the kids and animals and leave if it was a cat 3 or stronger. dh would have to stay since he is a firefighter and well- I am on the B team for after a hurricane in the er that I work in BUT my family comes first. there will always be a need for nurses is what I told dh after what we have seen with Katrina. we do have all our supplies ready if we did stay. Its up to us to be prepared and every year we stock up. I swear some people blow these storms off and laugh when I told them dh put our shutters up for Katrina last week when she blew by. you just never know and its better to be safe than sorry.

 

[MinnieM3]

It is very scary to know that hurricane season is not over yet. I keep holding my breath at every newscast when they "go to the tropics." Even talks of a small wave off Africa gets my stomach churning!

AFter Hugo, we built our house high up off the ground, about 12 feet, with concrete pilings....no we're not on water but are in what's considered a flood zone. We're less than 2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. I think we'd stay for up to a Cat. 3. Cat. 4 and seriously, I'd be on the DIS boards begging for a place to spend the night!

DIS-ers helping other DIS-ers in an evcuation situation isn't a bad idea! Let's see how the rest of the season goes!

 

[ADisneygirl]

I have never been one to scoff at these storms and try to "ride them out" at home. Everytime one was forecast to possibly come my way, we got out of here. There isn't anything in here that I would risk my life for except of course my family and I take them with me. Thankfully we have cars and the means to go if we had to.

If I were too poor to own a car or have the $$ means to get out of town, after what I witnessed on my tv this past week there is no way I would go to a mass public shelter. I would rather get on the highway and walk -- maybe someone would give me a ride out of pity. Can't say that my chances of meeting up with a weirdo/rapist/killer are any worse that way then sitting around amidst some of the criminal elements that were at the Superdome. What I have learned from all this tragedy is that one must try their best to be proactive in their own rescue and not wait around to see when or even if help will come if they have two legs and the ability to walk.

As for the helpless, well all I can say is God bless them.

 

[lbgraves]

I agree that I would load the kids & what I could in the strollers & head down the interstate. There is no way that I would take them to a mass shelter like the SD, though we have had evacuations many times in our area over the past 9 years and nothing like that has ever happened here....not even during the terrible flooding from Floyd. When Floyd missed FL and was still a cat 5 I called DH up while he was out of town on business & told him that he would be able to reach us at his parent's house. I got the shutters up & packed up the car and we lef the next morning. The eye passed right thru our town but it had been downgraded by then.

 

[Deb & Bill]

On Sunday early AM (about 6AM) before the hurricane, a bus carrying patients left a hospital in NOLA. It took them 4 hours to go about 25 miles. A trip that normally would take about 3 hours took 10-12 hours. And the worst part was the first 60 miles. You have to stick to the main roads because you have lots of causeways and bridges, swamps to pass over. You don't just hop in your car and get out.

 

[nliedel]

That's why I left Northwest Florida after Opal, so I would not have to make that decision.

Oh and there are probably, by NOAA's predictions, going to be 5-7 named storms before the end of hurricane season and 2 - 3 strong storms. Hurricane season peaks in mid September.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Wow. That's a very tough call.

We live on the third floor, so we are probably high enough to stay out of flood waters. I guess I would fill every single container in my house including both bathtubs with clean water and buy as much food, bottled water, propane, charcoal, ice, etc. as I could. Then I would pray the roof didn't blow off! It seems if you are going to ride it out you better have LOTS of supplies, and some weapons to fend off anyone who plans to take them from you.

I would make sure all of our Social Security cards, health insurance cards, birth certificates, driver's licenses (oops - if we don't have cars maybe we have state issued ID's?) and all other documents were sealed up in Ziploc bags and kept within reach at all times. I read about a lady who wrote her cell phone # on her son's leg with a Sharpie because she was afraid he would get lost at WDW. That's not a bad idea. I could list DS's vital info on his back with a Sharpie in case we were separated. Hopefully it wouldn't wash off if he had to swim through the flood.

I think for most people who DO have the means to get out that it is next to impossible to say what we would do if getting out wasn't an option. I wouldn't know where to start to hotwire a vehicle, but apparently that worked really well for people stuck in LA. One guy who ended up here hotwired an 18 wheeler from a truck driving school, loaded his friends in the back, and drove to Texas! Determination and creativity go a long way.

 

[Talking Hands]

I would ride it out. My home has already survived a category 5 hurricane. It is not in a flood zone and is of solid CBS construction. That said, if I am already out of town as I was for Andrew I am not coming back to ride out a storm.

 

[C.Ann]

Very interesting answers.. I guess none of us know for SURE what we would do if faced with the scenario that I presented here, but after watching this horror unfold for the past week, I "think" I would ride it out..