Darwinism at Work

[gblowfish]

I was reading the Houston Chronicle on line about the evacuation of Galveston. There's always a few idiots who insist on staying behind, even though they may face death, or put rescue workers in harm's way trying to save their stubborn asses at the last minute.

Here's a couple paragraphs from the story:

"But a stubborn few decided to stay. Emory Sallie, 44, said he had ridden storms out in the past and didn't think Ike would be any different. He didn't believe the dire warnings — he was more worried about the wind, not the flooding.

'If the island is going to disappear it has to be a tsunami,' he said, as he walked along the block where his home is located, drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. 'If it ain't your time you ain't going anywhere.'"

If anybody stays, and others have to try to get their asses out at the last minute, these stragglers should have to pay for the expense, and be held liable for manslaughter if any rescue personnel die trying to save their sorry asses imho.

[Demonpenz]

I thought this was going to be a story about how dumb people get fired from their job

[L.A. Chieffan]

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! USA'S GOT THE BEST HURRICANES BABY!!!

GO COWBOYS!

[Fat Elvis]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080912/...e1TQRD5ZPZa7gF

Hurricane Ike may be taking aim for the low-lying coast of Texas, but grocery store worker Jacqueline Harris is staying put -- in a flimsy, wooden beach bar.

"If nature is going to come and get us, bring it on!" Harris said as she sipped a Bud light beer at the Poop Deck, a tavern a stone's throw from the sandy coastal strip thrashed by white-capped waves.

"Everything I own and love is on the island; I'm going down with the ship," she added.

Residents of vulnerable coastal areas like Galveston Island are under a mandatory evacuation order. They face 111 mile per hour (177 kph) winds and tidal surges of up to 20 feet if Ike makes landfall as a dangerous Category 3 storm as expected late on Friday.

Texas governor Rick Perry urged residents to heed evacuation orders in such low-lying areas of the Gulf of Mexico that face severe flooding from tidal surges and heavy rains.

Some have decided to stay, boarding up their windows and preparing to move to higher floors ahead of the storm's surge, which is tipped to top Galveston's 17-foot (5-metre) sea wall and flood the island from end-to-end by daylight on Saturday.

A Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Galveston in 1900 killed at least 6,000 people, making it the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

The manager of the Poop Deck Marie Aldrich-Creasy says she has no plans to leave. She has stockpiled batteries, candles and a few tins of food, but said would not be shuttering her bar, which faces the sea a few yards (meters) across a highway.

"I don't believe I am endangering anyone. The doors are open; if they choose to come, that's their free will," she said, sipping a vodka and mocha cocktail in the bar.

THRILL SEEKERS AND THE WEARY

Every hurricane has its holdouts. Those who risk all to stay put do so for a variety of reasons.

"This is our home. Why run and come back to nothing?" said Harris, sitting at a table with other regulars in the bar.

Waitress Nanette Crouch said she was put off by the huge traffic jams she faced fleeing the coastal strip ahead of the last hurricane, Rita, which barged ashore in Texas three years ago.

"I've been praying a lot, I'm scared, but I'm never going in that traffic again, not after Rita, it was 17 hours of hell," she said, as she stood on the deck of the bar, with her mother Nancy.

Others opted to stay for the extreme thrill of riding out the storm, which has grown in size since roaring through the Caribbean, wreaking havoc in Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas.

"I know it sounds crazy, but it's something I've always wanted to do -- experience a hurricane," said Andrew Lawrence, a former convict turned builder, as he knocked back beers and shots in the bar.

"I've been in prison, I've been shot ... I figure if I do this, I'll be the Michael Phelps of travesties," he said, referring to the U.S. swim champion who won a record-setting eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympic games.

Staying on was not for all though. One couple said they were preparing to get off the island, and faced gentle mockery from others in the bar.

"They're voted off the island!" quipped housewife Eva Broughton. "This is 'Survivor,' this is reality."





Edit: And here is your sole survivor and winner of $1 million...Ike.

[Fat Elvis]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/us/13ike.html?ref=us

Dire Warning as Hurricane Ike Nears Texas



Article Tools Sponsored By
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: September 12, 2008

As Hurricane Ike bore down on the Houston area on Friday morning, the National Weather Service issued a stern warning to people living in small houses on Galveston Island that they faced “certain death” from flooding if they remained in their homes.

Amanda Stephens-Collins, Flagship hotel night manager, was the last person remaining after the hotel was evacuated as Hurricane Ike moved toward Galveston, Tex., Friday morning.

Forecasters said the wall of water being pushed onshore by the mammoth storm could cause floods of 15 to 22 feet above sea level, enough to cover many houses on the island, where a hurricane killed more than 8,000 people in 1900.

“Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family one- or two-story homes will face certain death,” the National Weather Service said in a local bulletin. “Many residences of average construction directly on the coast will be destroyed.”

The dire warning came as residents of Houston and Galveston rushed to board up their houses and move inland and Hurricane Ike moved closer to the two cities. By Friday morning, the unusually wide storm was more than 500 miles across and was rated Category 2, with 105 mile per hour winds at its center, churning across the Gulf of Mexico about 230 miles southeast of Galveston, according to The National Hurricane Center.

A mandatory evacuation was ordered for Galveston, and hurricane warnings were issued for a 400-mile stretch of coastline that stretched from south of Corpus Christi to Morgan City, La.

Thousands fled the island earlier in the day in private cars or on government-chartered buses, but a few diehards insisted they would stay in their homes. One was Denise Scurry, a 46-year-old pool hall employee who was sitting on a milk crate Thursday afternoon in downtown Galveston near her two-story home, reading “Thugs and the Women Who Love Them” and sipping brandy.

“It ain’t going to be nothing but wind and rain,” she said. “Everybody’s all excited about nothing.”

Larry Drosnes, who lives a half-mile from the beach, drove his black Ford Ranger to an elevated parking garage for safekeeping, and then returned to his house.

“The people that left are prudent, and those that are staying are reckless,” said Mr. Drosnes, 61, who has ridden out nearly every storm that has hit the island since 1948. “It’s pretty obvious which category I am in.”

The authorities ordered hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate low-lying areas from the Louisiana border to Corpus Christi. Traffic built up on highways leading from the coast; some gas stations ran out of fuel.

Forecasters predicted that Hurricane Ike would make landfall late Friday or before dawn on Saturday between the central Texas coast and southwestern Louisiana, with Galveston at the center of that track.

“I cannot overemphasize the danger that is facing us,” Gov. Rick Perry of Texas said at a news conference in Austin.

In the storm’s path lies one of the nation’s largest concentrations of oil refineries, the Johnson Space Center, the resorts on Galveston Island and Houston’s downtown of skyscrapers. More than four million people live in Houston and its suburbs.

The federal government moved swiftly to send rescue teams, generators, water and food into Texas and Louisiana, said Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security. Forty teams with helicopters and high-water trucks from the Coast Guard, the National Guard and the Defense Department were positioned to rescue people, Mr. Chertoff said.

Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have taken up positions in local emergency management offices, said the agency’s director, R. David Paulison.

Mr. Chertoff acknowledged that some people had become blasé about hurricane warnings, especially after Hurricane Gustav earlier this month turned out to be less damaging than predicted. He urged Texans not to let their guard down.

“This is not a storm to gamble with,” Mr. Chertoff said. “It’s large. It’s powerful.”

In Houston, the authorities hoped to avoid the traffic gridlock of three years ago when Hurricane Rita threatened, urging people who did not live in coastal floodplains to remain home.

“We are still saying: Please shelter in place, or to use the Texas expression, hunker down,” said Judge Ed Emmett, the chief administrator for Harris County, which includes Houston.

Over 1,000 feet off the Galveston coastline, Amanda Stephens-Collins was the last person remaining at the Flagship Hotel Over The Water, which sits on a pier extending into the Gulf. A night manager, Ms. Stephens-Collins was taking a break on Friday morning after checking that every room in the hotel had been emptied. “There was one guy last night who didn’t want to leave, and he asked how exactly I intended to get him gone,” she said. Ms. Stephens-Collins said she would call the police, and the man promptly left.

Greg Taveno was also not keen on leaving. Speaking in front of a nine-foot surf board stowed in his truck, Mr. Taveno said he wasn’t too worried about the 10 foot waves crashing in.

“If I can’t find a way to get out of the water, I’m not getting in,” he said, just before a gigantic wave washed over his truck and hit the highway behind him. “I suppose,” he said, “that is one way I could get out. Just get tossed.”

[DJ's left nut]

When I heard the bolded language I knew this probably wasn't one you'd want to be throwing a hurricane party for.

The weather service doesn't throw around the words "certain death" very often. In fact, to my knowledge, this is a first.

Getting out of Dodge would be a very good idea.

[Hammock Parties]

I'm staying. I fear no act of god.

[FAX]

I don't disagree with the notion that the hangers-on should pay for a last minute rescue (should it come to that) or, in the event that a responder is injured or loses their life trying to save them, they should be held accountable, Mr. gblowfish. I have absolutely no problem with any of that.

Nevertheless, I would be hard-pressed to evacuate every time a hurricane threatened my home, or business, or favorite bar, or whatever. I honestly think that I might well ride it out if, from a pragmatic viewpoint, I was sufficiently prepared to do so.

As long as the person takes responsibility for their decision in the way you suggest, Mr. gblowfish, I see nothing wrong with sticking it out if you want.

FAX

[Garcia Bronco]

My company is the one doing the rescuing from an air ambulance perspective. We live it, love it, and want more of it.

[StcChief]

some good potential Darwin award winners here.

[ChiefsCountry]

My friend who lives in Houston is sticking it out. I called him and he said I've lived through tornandos, ice storms, and other stuff. But then again he is in the national guard so I'm sure he will be called up real quick as well.

[triple]

Someone help me out... Ike is a Category 2, not like Katrina or Andrew which were Category 5.

Storms of this intensity damage some roofing material, and also produce damage to poorly constructed doors and windows. Considerable damage is caused to vegetation, poorly constructed signs, and piers. Mobile homes, whether anchored or not, are usually badly damaged, and many manufactured homes also suffer structural damage. Also, small craft in unprotected anchorages may break their moorings.

This doesn't sound like a "death is certain" situation. What am I missing?

Also Category 2 was Hurricane Dolly which followed roughly the same track and hit Texas in July of this year. Does it seem to anyone else like there is 10 times the news coverage of Ike? Why?

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by FAX

I don't disagree with the notion that the hangers-on should pay for a last minute rescue (should it come to that) or, in the event that a responder is injured or loses their life trying to save them, they should be held accountable, Mr. gblowfish. I have absolutely no problem with any of that.

Nevertheless, I would be hard-pressed to evacuate every time a hurricane threatened my home, or business, or favorite bar, or whatever. I honestly think that I might well ride it out if, from a pragmatic viewpoint, I was sufficiently prepared to do so.

As long as the person takes responsibility for their decision in the way you suggest, Mr. gblowfish, I see nothing wrong with sticking it out if you want.

FAX

How often does NOAA say "Severe Flooding is Certain and those in the affected areas lives are in peril?"

I'd get hell outta there and as far away from the damn ocean as possible.
Or at least get a life preserver, swim fins and a rubber duckie.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

How often does NOAA say "Severe Flooding is Certain and those in the affected areas lives are in peril?"

I'd get hell outta there and as far away from the damn ocean as possible.
Or at least get a life preserver, swim fins and a rubber duckie.

Let's cut to the chase, Mr. gblowfish. You only go around once in life. That's it. If you don't ride out a hurricane, or climb a mountain, or eat a worm, or learn a magic trick, or enjoy sexual relations with two actress/models simultaneously, or put a monkey in a leisure suit during your time on this here mortal plane, there's no guarantee you'll ever get another chance.

Plus, it would be amazingly cool to be the only person in a town the size of ... say ... Birmingham or somewhere because everybody else evacuated leaving you behind. It would be like you were the last person on Earth for a little while. How cool would that be? Amazingly cool, that's how cool that would be ... maybe even a little cooler than that, cool-wise.

FAX

[Dave Lane]

Originally Posted by Claythan

I'm staying. I fear no act of god.

Who?