TRIGGER WARNING I can’t believe some people aren’t evacuating in Florida

[Newsenmum]

I really don’t mean to be insensitive. This hurricane Milton is terrifying but I’m really struggling to understand this. I know there are some awful situations where people can’t drive/are disabled or elderly and feel helpless but what I CAN’T understand is people not trying. Like they’re completely putting their head in the sand.

I’m part of a few mum Facebook groups that are mostly American. I kid you not, people are staying in zones with their little babies where there is mandatory evacuation. Some reasons why they aren’t leaving:

• my dog is aggressive and won’t be allowed in the shelter, so I’m staying put with him and going to hope and pray. Why is the dog worth more than a kid?
• i have too many animals which don’t fit in the car, I’m worried about the chickens (!!) again.. wtf? Basically suicide for their kids because they don’t want to leave chickens!
• im from flORIda so I’ll be fine! Hopefully it’s not as bad as they think. I don’t want to disrupt us. wtf??
• my babies have a block safe room and that’s ‘normally fine’

There are other Americans trying to send them money, urging them to go storm shelters or at least a bit more inland!

These are people in areas that have 15ft storm surge, there is so much debris already around that is going to be trashing their houses. If they want a certain death for themselves then fine but can’t get over them not saving their babies 😭😭😭 all because they won’t leave the bloody chickens that are going to drown either way!!

Only if you have the finances. Many do not have the money to travel 20 miles never mind hundreds. They don't have the money for hotels. What are they supposed to do?

I wouldn’t want to stay at all, but if for some reason my dog couldn’t go with me, I’d absolutely stay behind with her. I don’t have children yet, and due to medical issues I might not be able to have them at all (which is a very sore subject), so my dog is my baby. I couldn’t live without her, so I do understand people choosing to stay with their animals.

however, if I did have kids and was in the situation, I’d pack everyone up in the car no matter how I had to do it and be gone. I wouldn’t choose one over the other

I saw a post on twitter about prisoners? But then it flashed away, something about prisoners not being evacuated.

Surely they wouldn't have prisons down there?

What are line man trucks for?

I’m in the habit of keeping me and mine safe!!

I know what it means having no money. I really really do. But I also know that if I had considered it absolutely essential, I'd have done that awful thing of leaving work and getting a bus or whatever or hitching or asking someone to help.

I'd have gone to a police station and asked for help.

I wonder if there was support for people who wanted to leave but diddn't have money.

And I'd have slept in the car 200 miles away and been happy.

but that's me

Exactly! Not to mention many people can’t just up and leave work at the first sniff of trouble - especially as they’ve just had a hurricane and may have used their leave. And what about doctors, nurses, police, shop staff, etc, they can’t just up and leave either.

I personally do find the idea of staying in an area at risk of storm surge unbelievably terrifying, and I like to think if I was there I’d the means to go, but I can’t know that for sure, because I am not there!

Also, I would not leave my dog to drown alone. His life isn’t worth less than a human.

Line men are the guys repairing all the power cables. They stage them somewhere close in expectation that they’re going to need to put all the electric cables back up again after the poles get flattened.

You think they don’t have prisons in Florida?!

do you think shops and places of work, etc, are going to be open and people working? It's all going to be deserted and obliterated 😥

only key workers will be working, and probably a reduced core of them, and the rescue workers.

Well yes if you work in a supermarket it will be open as long as possible. Or a hardware store. Or you are a police officer. Or a bus driver transferring people to shelters. Or literally anyone who works in a hospital. Or for power companies. It’s not that hard to see that some places do have to stay open for as long as possible or even throughout.

What do you want me to say? Congrats? You're a better person than those in florida who are staying?

You aren't in their position. You have precisely zero clue what you would do unless you're in it right now, under the conditions that they are in.

We can all sit back safely in the UK and say "well I would have left a week ago", in reality most people couldn't afford the time off work, the fares, the petrol, the additional costs of living elsewhere for an unspecified period of time etc.

They don't want to die, they don't want their kids to die,but they are under some bloody extreme circumstances and very restricted as to what they can do about it.

To smugly sit and think you could do better is sheer arrogance.

You have no idea how you'd react. Many of these people don't have a choice, anyway.

I saw somewhere that people have been given evacuations notices three times already this year. As a poster has said, Florida is over 400 miles long.

3 times you would have left work unpaid, potentially risking getting fired. You’d have found the money to fill your tank with price gouging to potentially drive 800 miles (to evacuate and come back). You’d have used more than 800 miles of fuel though because of the tailbacks. At a time when you owe thousands of dollars in medical bills because you just had a baby, even if you had insurance because of the US healthcare system. Your home is potentially facing thousands of dollars of damage and you can’t necessarily afford home insurance because your home is in a hurricane path, so you’ll need to finance that yourself.

The system in the US is different to here and I don’t think it’s easy to just say you’d have driven the car 200 miles and slept in there.

My friends DH is in work, he works in advertising.

Exactly, the amount of people who say "well I would just drive X miles and sleep in the car.

As if everyone has access to a car or a licence in the first place.

I can see how some people can’t evacuate the state but if I was in an evacuation area I would 100% go to a shelter even if I couldn’t go any further

I'd have been working out how to move.

And if the shelters were full? If you didn't have fuel?

The shelters aren’t full. They have a huge amount of capacity. And there is free transport to them. Including for those with additional needs

I wouldn’t wish to sit in grid locked traffic with a baby in the middle of a hurricane . I would have left early, but then I have to the money to do so. Try to have some understanding for others situation.

Katrina was a category 3 hurricane when she made landfall.

I don't understand those suggesting prayers as some kind of positive act. If any kind of god exists and can do something about the storm, why are they causing it at the first place? Are they waiting for likes to save people's lifes?

I understand that someone personally feels better through praying and nothing against that, but let's not pretend it is of any practical use.

I think they are damned if they do and dammed if they don't.

I saw a TikTok where a woman was explaining something a Floridian relative had told her. If they leave they won't be able to get back for weeks, and the house will be destroyed by mould, looters etc. If they stay, they can start repairing and airing out as soon as it's safe. The TikToker said it wasn't something she would do, but she understood why people stayed.