The Sun Herald | 01/30/2006 | Officials do not want a 2006 hurricane to take the Coast by surprise

The Sun Herald | 01/30/2006 | Officials do not want a 2006 hurricane to take the Coast by surprise

Driving up and down the streets of the cities of the coast, we couldn't help but think about what would happen to the thousands of folks in travel trailers in the event of another hurricane. Not even another Katrina -- just another hurricane. It's a given that those in trailers would have to evacuate to somewhere... But also - what of the tens of thousands of FEMA trailers that would be left behind to face their doom? What do folks do when they come home to their still-gutted house AND a wrecked FEMA trailer? It's a horrible thought, really. We don't linger there long.

As for our own plans regarding future hurricanes -- we have our 2006 emergency supply kit ready and waiting as always.. and by June we will have new shutters cut to board up the house (our old ones have so much deadly black mold on them now it just doesn't seem right to wrap the house in biohazard). My husband and I agreed that next season we'll be booking a hotel room somewhere NOT ridiculously far away as soon as a tropical system enters the Gulf of Mexico. If nothing comes of it - we can always cancel the reservations. But with the three of us (Dave, Mom and I) - the four kids - the dog - and the three cats... We just are not in a position to wait until there is actually a hurricane out there to find a place to go if the need arises.

Of course this brings me back to the issue of evacuation once again -- something I babble on and on about at length when some poor soul brings it up in my presence. You see, it would seem that the safest possible thing to do would be to evacuate every time a hurricane threatens the coast. Pack up and go! That's safe. It's simple. Uh.. wait - it's not so simple. How many times a year can you take off from work for a short vacation? Every business on the coast cannot close five days out from the landfall of every potential hurricane. This necessarily means that some people are still at work up until the very last minute. And unfortunately, hurricanes aren't always considerate enough to make landfall over the weekend.

There was a lot of talk about finances when it came to the evacuation of New Orleans. We heard that folks simply could not afford to leave. And we heard other folks who simply could not understand this. I understand it. Now if you are sitting on your porch and you can be CERTAIN that a hurricane is going to arrive on that same front porch within 24 hours and kill you and your family and destroy your home... Then - yes - it would behoove you to find SOME way out of harm's way whether you have the money or not. But that's not how this works, guys. These are 'predictions' -- the term alone implies uncertainty. And we have our share of false alarms down here every year.

I can hear someone in the back row right now saying it's silly not to heed the warnings because of a few false alarms. To you in the back row I say, "Shush! I'm not talking about a false sense of security here... I'm talking about practicality..." When we have three or four threatened storms in a season and nothing happens -- sure, you'll find that by the fifth storm fewer people evacuate. But it's probably not for the reasons you're thinking. What if a given family had made preparations, made hotel reservations, took off from work, and evacuated for the four previous 'hurricanes' that threatened their city. The hurricanes did not hit.. There was no disaster declared. FEMA did not reimburse them for their hotel charges or their gas money. Their employer reopened well before they could return and docked their pay... Four times. How many people can really afford to do it a fifth time?