Add to
@Baymule 's comment... knowing the risks also means being willing to pay for the premiums for proper insurance, or understanding that "someone" isn't going to come in and "fix it for you". And being thickheaded or stupid about "riding it out" means that you are taking responsibility for yourself.
On the flip side of that... there are many people who live in those high risk areas BECAUSE that is where the work is. They are often in the lower end of the income brackets... many rent where they are... Many are hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck, living also... and it costs alot of money to "go and take to the high ground" so to speak and evacuate for several days to an area that is "safer".... they don't give out free rooms in more secure areas for people to stay in... SO many just do not have the money to take an unplannned 2-3-5 day "vacation" of evacuating to someplace safer.....
So what is the answer? I just don't know. I was talking to Deb of the place we make hay just up the road... and she was wondering if we had any problems here since she had decided not to come out due to the rain and all... and she said that she heard on the radio talking about evacuating... that a rough estimate was for it to cost about $1,000 for a couple to evacuate for 3-5 days.... how would a family that was trying to make ends meet afford to do that? I get that those like on the island were being just plain dumb to not value their lives more... but what about places that were just prone to flooding and all that... where evacuating was a smart move....yet how do you afford to do it when there is barely enough to pay the rent and utilities normally?
I don't have the answers. I like the ocean, and all that, but not having grown up there, not "in love with it" and not a "way of life for me".... so I cannot relate to those that it is their life and soul... in their blood so to speak. But I am also not stupid enough to think that I am "different or better than" to think that staying is the smart thing to do. The thing that also gets to me is that growing up in a family where my father was in the fire dept, and they were called to many "rescue" type operations, and seeing the damage that hurricane weather can do even "inland" where we were in Conn.; how can anyone in their right mind think that they should be rescued by another mortal human being putting their life on the line..... if you do not value your own life enough to try to be smart about "saving yourself".... why in the name of "whomever" ... do people think that someone else should be saving them at their own risk of death.....
Getting caught in a situation that is totally unexpected, where you have no prior warning... or such a short warning that to be nearly impossible to do much to prepare; is one thing. They knew about this hurricane for DAYS ahead of time. I think that the Gov was right to tell people that if they had not evacuated, that they were on their own until it was SAFE for rescue workers to go out after it had passed. The rescue people's lives are worth as much if not more, than the fools that stayed behind through their own decision.