What are you, stupid?

Excerpts from Washington Post.com

"Officials in Galveston, which took a frontal attack from Hurricane Ike, received emergency calls through the night from residents seeking help, but it was too dangerous to send out rescuers.

The fate of many Galveston residents is still unknown. Thousands stayed, despite impassioned requests from state and federal officials for evacuation. Alicia Cahill, spokesman for the City of Galveston, told reporters this morning that the Emergency Operations Center has received scores of calls through the night from people trapped in their homes, seeking rescue. But firefighters and police had returned to the command center Friday night, leaving citizens to ride it out on their own."

Okay, they basically told people in Galveston - get out or you will die. They weren't messing around. They were serious and put out serious evacuation warnings. They told people it was coming. People decided to stay anyway, knowing the danger. I don't know what coastal dwellers believe, but being up here in non-hurricane land it's easy to say they are all stupid.

However, knowing full well what was coming and after being told to evacuate they stay - and then! which should be no surprise to them they get into trouble of some kind and what do they do? They call for help. Seriously? You are on an island. How in the world is anyone supposed to come rescue you - DURING A HURRICANE? Why do you think rescue services are magical? Superman is not going to come get your sorry ass!

I would get fired if I was an emergency responder down there. It would go something like this. "We told you to evacuate, now your house is flooding/collapsing/losing it's roof and you need help. Guess what? We aren't putting our emergency services in danger. Suck it. You chose to stay - suffer the consequences." And somewhere around there I'd hang up.

Heartless? Probably. But this is bullshit. The amount of time, effort and money spent to rescue people plainly and clearly told to GET OUT is just asinine. You live in a hurricane zone, you suffer the consequences. I don't care if they come every 30 years - that's what you get.

You live in a brush fire zone? You live in a tornado zone? You live in an earthquake zone? You live on a flood plain? You do not get to cry when your house disappears. You live in mother nature's clearing grounds - danger zones. Don't be an idiot. There are plenty of other places to live that are free of natural disaster.

Don't mess with Texas? Suck it Galveston.