A North Carolina woman whose home was directly in the path of Hurricane Florence told a reporter that the reason she wasn’t evacuating was that her two dogs didn’t have their proper vaccination papers so no shelter would take them in. Therefore she was staying put. A veteran (who by all appearances looked able-bodied) said that he was on disability and therefore couldn’t afford to leave. And yet another resident, a female transplant from New York who looked and sounded very upper-middle class, stated that they were taking all right precautions — such as boarding up their home and stocking up on water and supplies — and felt her family could ride out the storm just fine.
It appeared as if she was looking forward to the adventure, or as we say in the black community. “She don’t believe fat meat is greasy.”
But what happens when Mother Nature takes charge and swiftly rising floodwaters fill their homes to the rafters, forcing them onto their roofs? What do they do? They put out a panic emergency call for someone to rescue them, and first responders then have to put their lives on the line to save these stupid people who totally ignored the governor’s mandatory evacuation order.
Something is wrong with this picture.
Now my wife and I love our home dearly and would hate to have to leave it due to an emergency situation. But with that said, we’d pack up the two dogs, the mother-in-law, whatever documents we could quickly amass, and take off for higher ground, somewhere out of harm’s way.
My question is, should there be some sort of sanction for people who put other’s lives in jeopardy due to their own intransigence or stupidity? Just what does a “mandatory evacuation order” mean? Are there any sanctions in place for those who don’t follow the order? A stiff fine maybe or criminal charges brought against them? After all, they’ve put someone else’s life in danger by their selfish actions.
Of course, as a society, we simply can’t let people die; they have to be rescued. But if that rescue came at a stiff price somewhere down the line people would either obey the evacuation order or, in the best case scenario, be the tough guys they want to tell the world are: People who can defy Mother Nature by riding out the storm and not calling out for help.
Why should taxpayers foot the bill for their unwise behavior?
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.