Hmmm… the Hurricane is messing up my week too now?

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Okay… here’s your warning… I am about to get all selfish here for a little while… so if you aren’t really into reading selfish posts, then I would probably stop reading this right now.

I live in a small suburb outside of Dallas, not too big of a city or anything… and I live really far from the coast, so with the exception of a little post hurricane rain, I had never really been affected by a hurricane, until Katrina.  When Katrina happened, people from New Orleans came flocking to Dallas, and I rushed to help.  I cleaned all the old clothes out of closets, and I did as much as I could.  That sucked for the people of Louisiana and the people of the DFW metroplex really stepped up to help them.  I really think Texas did a fantastic job of stepping up for their fellow Americans, and it was really cool to see.

Fast forward three years to Gustav.  The hurricane evacuation relief effors are estimated to cost the area of DFW twelve million dollars.  uhhhh… what?!?! Did someone just say that the New Orleans evacuation effort is going to cost US 12 million dollars?  seriously?  Why is this coming out of our tax payer pockets?  This confuses me big time…

Then, I get a kid from my kid’s teacher saying that they aren’t having preschool this week because their school is being used as a rescue shelter for evacuees?  Uh, again, what?  These people have evacuated all the way to here?  There was nowhere closer to their homes that could hold them?  I mean we aren’t like a major city, and that isn’t like a big school or anything… it is just a small building… Louisiana doesn’t have those to house their own evacuees?  Instead, we have to put off our stuff?  Last time I checked, I didn’t move into a Hurricane prone area… so I shouldn’t be having to change MY week for it.

I realize this is selfish, but I just don’t understand how after THREE years the answer is still to come all the way to Dallas for help… what makes us the special place here?  I just think that is weird.  Also, how do ALL these people not have a place to stay for a night?  They are showing up in nice cars wearing nice clothes… they are showing us all the pictures of this on the news… why are they not able to afford some sort of accomodations for themselves?  I mean, if it were us, we would never DREAM of staying in a shelter, I mean, are you kidding me?  We would hop into our mid-size SUV and drive until out of harms way, while I was on the phone securing our hotel reservations for the upcoming few evenings… how is it that these people aren’t doing this?  How is it that these people don’t have friends or families to put them up during this storm?  If I chose to live in an area like that, you can bet your butt I would have money put away for hurricane season, and I get that some of them still haven’t recovered from Katrina… but the sheer number of people just blows me away…

crap, now I feel bad… I better go donate some money, which I don’t mind doing, by the way… in fact I have been thinking about volunteering with the Red Cross for some time, and this is just the push I need…I just don’t understand why things aren’t better thought out.

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2 Comments

  1. Hi, I found your blog via BRK's comment site. I just wanted to explain a few things to you about Louisiana's hurricane evacuation woes.

    I live in Shreveport, LA. I lived in Flowermound, TX for some time and I dearly miss the Metroplex, but back to LA… The 'toe' of the 'boot' that is our state is where more than 2/3rds of the population lives. The upper third being mostly Small Town USA with the exception of Shreveport/Bossier that is the third largest city in LA. The problem is, there just isn't enough housing for the other 2/3rds of LA residents to attempt to squeeze them into this area. It's like trying to shove ten pounds of groceries into a five pound bag, the other five pounds is going to spill out somewhere.

    As for why they show up with nice cars and clothes, I can't answer that. The people that get evac'd here are the poorest of poor and they have no other place to go.

    I hope this helps.

    Higgins

  2. Hi, I found your blog via BRK’s comment site. I just wanted to explain a few things to you about Louisiana’s hurricane evacuation woes.

    I live in Shreveport, LA. I lived in Flowermound, TX for some time and I dearly miss the Metroplex, but back to LA… The ‘toe’ of the ‘boot’ that is our state is where more than 2/3rds of the population lives. The upper third being mostly Small Town USA with the exception of Shreveport/Bossier that is the third largest city in LA. The problem is, there just isn’t enough housing for the other 2/3rds of LA residents to attempt to squeeze them into this area. It’s like trying to shove ten pounds of groceries into a five pound bag, the other five pounds is going to spill out somewhere.

    As for why they show up with nice cars and clothes, I can’t answer that. The people that get evac’d here are the poorest of poor and they have no other place to go.

    I hope this helps.

    Higgins

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