Aug 30 2008
Bracing for Gustav: Taking Personal Responsibility
“Unlike Katrina, when thousands took refuge inside the Superdome, there will be no “last resort” shelter, and those who stay behind accept “all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones,” said the city’s emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed.”
According to the Associated Press, as many as 30,000 New Orleans residnets are lining up for buses headed north, part of a city evacuation plan developed after Hurrican Katrina. But officials believe many of the 300,000 residents of the city may try to wait out the storm in the city.
To them, Sneed is sending a message: you stay at your own risk.
of course,t eh reality is, we all know that they do not stay at their own risk. If things were to go horribly awry again, the Coast Guard, FEMA and the National Guard would ocne again be expected to save them. And, in soem ways, that’s a good thing. It is, after all, part of the reason that such groups exist.
However, there seems to be a need for personal responsibility in the Gulf Coast. 24 hours ago, Gustav was a tropical storm and the weather watchers warned people that it was going to get ugly. Right now, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, it is up to a Category 4 hurricane and is expected to be a Catergory 5 by morning.
Some people are smart, fleeing ahead of the storm in the evacuation buses provided for them, but others are not. And, even now, Governor Bobby Jindal is planning ahead to avoid the lawlessness that plagued New Orleans during the aftermath of Katrina. Louisiana National Guard troops are already in place in the city.
In short, the government is doing everything it can to prevent a recurrence of the storm three years ago. But are the citizens? Sadly, the initial answer seems to be no. Theya re hoping the levees will hold or that the storm will turn a different direction, but they are not fleeing the city in the numbers that the governor and mayor hoped they would.
In the end, it is unlikely that the storm will be as devastating as Katrina. Too many of New Orleans’ residents never returned after the last big storm. But it still seems likely that many lives will be lost, not because the opportunity to flee wasn’t present, but simply because they chose not to take it.
At some point, we have to wonder, is the cost of rescuing the stubborn worth it?
