the cost of evacuating
Sep. 1st, 2005 13:21![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
piranhathere's no shortage of commentary on NOLA out there today, coming from the safety of our collective armchairs. i'll be picking on just one, the person who said that if you can't be bothered to put away $40 for a tank of gas to get the hell out of dodge, you're too stupid to live.
what, an $40 extra gas is all it takes? if you think an extra $40 is gonna do it for you, you are yourself extremely ill-prepared.
it'd easily cost > $1000, and the gas to get out of town is the least of it. first, you need to have a reliable enough car, which is not something an average working poor in a metropolitan area might have sitting around, just in case. but i'm magnanimous -- let's assume you do. now you need to find shelter and food where you're going. you won't know the place you're going to, so you're not tuned into where the bargains are; everything will be more expensive than at home where you know your way. prices will also be higher because of gouging. free shelter will be hard to find, will not take pets, and will offer all the undesirable side effects of shelters (noise, illness, theft, violence). hotel rooms don't usually allow or provide for cooking, driving up your cost for food.
if you anticipate not returning within a short period of time, you will have to rent an apartment. if you can find one -- you're competing with all the other evacuees and regular folks who live there. it'll cost you extra security deposit, and higher rental fee because you're not a long-term renter. you won't have a job at this point in time either, nor are you likely going to find one; there'll be a lot of competition. nobody in your family will likely have a job.
all of this presumes everyone is basically healthy. if we're talking elderly people, very young children, disabled people, seriously ill people, the cost, effort, and danger of evacuation go up.
i'm only touching on the practical issues. none of this talks about how it feels to uproot yourself (and your kids and pets), to go to a place where you don't know anybody. people handle disaster much better when they're in their own community, in their own place.
also: think about assessing this before having seen what this storm of which you are being warned will do. it's easy in hindsight -- once you know your house will be flooded over the gables, you know you should have gone. but how do you know beforehand? the last N storms didn't do anything bad, they missed you, or petered out before getting to you. the media always sensationalises the dangers. you're living in a city which knows about flooding. if the levees hold... if the eye of the storm passes further to the west... if if if. you don't know. you have to guess.
last, but not least -- sure, you're right, people who move to new orleans ought to know that the city is going to be covered by water anyway if global warming continues apace, and that in the meantime it's a sitting duck for hurricanes. in italy, people live on the slopes of mt. vesuvius. i'm living a mere 28m above sea level on the coast of vancouver island. there is danger in many places. some seem a bit more dangerous than others, but none are 100% safe, and when choosing where to live, people don't just take danger into account. NOLA is where it is because a big-ass river that goes through the whole damn country meets the ocean there. like, *duh*. that's where humans build ports, because it makes trade easy. and where there is a port, there are people needed to make it work, since we haven't yet perfected robotics.
california is dangerous to live because it might slide into the ocean. the midwest is dangerous to live because it's tornado alley. the east coast is also in danger from hurricanes. where do you draw the line, how do you choose your own place of residence? me, personally -- not gonna live on the slopes of an active volcano. but blaming the people who do? i dunno. too easy. none of us make purely rational choices; my diet might kill me long before the next outbreak of mt vesuvius.
what, an $40 extra gas is all it takes? if you think an extra $40 is gonna do it for you, you are yourself extremely ill-prepared.
it'd easily cost > $1000, and the gas to get out of town is the least of it. first, you need to have a reliable enough car, which is not something an average working poor in a metropolitan area might have sitting around, just in case. but i'm magnanimous -- let's assume you do. now you need to find shelter and food where you're going. you won't know the place you're going to, so you're not tuned into where the bargains are; everything will be more expensive than at home where you know your way. prices will also be higher because of gouging. free shelter will be hard to find, will not take pets, and will offer all the undesirable side effects of shelters (noise, illness, theft, violence). hotel rooms don't usually allow or provide for cooking, driving up your cost for food.
if you anticipate not returning within a short period of time, you will have to rent an apartment. if you can find one -- you're competing with all the other evacuees and regular folks who live there. it'll cost you extra security deposit, and higher rental fee because you're not a long-term renter. you won't have a job at this point in time either, nor are you likely going to find one; there'll be a lot of competition. nobody in your family will likely have a job.
all of this presumes everyone is basically healthy. if we're talking elderly people, very young children, disabled people, seriously ill people, the cost, effort, and danger of evacuation go up.
i'm only touching on the practical issues. none of this talks about how it feels to uproot yourself (and your kids and pets), to go to a place where you don't know anybody. people handle disaster much better when they're in their own community, in their own place.
also: think about assessing this before having seen what this storm of which you are being warned will do. it's easy in hindsight -- once you know your house will be flooded over the gables, you know you should have gone. but how do you know beforehand? the last N storms didn't do anything bad, they missed you, or petered out before getting to you. the media always sensationalises the dangers. you're living in a city which knows about flooding. if the levees hold... if the eye of the storm passes further to the west... if if if. you don't know. you have to guess.
last, but not least -- sure, you're right, people who move to new orleans ought to know that the city is going to be covered by water anyway if global warming continues apace, and that in the meantime it's a sitting duck for hurricanes. in italy, people live on the slopes of mt. vesuvius. i'm living a mere 28m above sea level on the coast of vancouver island. there is danger in many places. some seem a bit more dangerous than others, but none are 100% safe, and when choosing where to live, people don't just take danger into account. NOLA is where it is because a big-ass river that goes through the whole damn country meets the ocean there. like, *duh*. that's where humans build ports, because it makes trade easy. and where there is a port, there are people needed to make it work, since we haven't yet perfected robotics.
california is dangerous to live because it might slide into the ocean. the midwest is dangerous to live because it's tornado alley. the east coast is also in danger from hurricanes. where do you draw the line, how do you choose your own place of residence? me, personally -- not gonna live on the slopes of an active volcano. but blaming the people who do? i dunno. too easy. none of us make purely rational choices; my diet might kill me long before the next outbreak of mt vesuvius.